Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig have rejected another congressional inquiry into President Trump’s tax returns to a congressional committee, virtually guaranteeing the dispute will end up in court.
Last week, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., subpoenaed the pair of Trump administration officials last week in a follow-up to request for Trump’s tax information. As chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Neal can, by law, request tax information for individuals, businesses, or organizations.
In a letter to Neal sent by Mnuchin on Friday afternoon, the Treasury secretary says he refuses Neal’s subpoena and that he will provide a memo from the Justice Department at some point in the future outlining the administration’s legal argument.
Mnuchin and Trump’s lawyers have argued that Neal’s request lacks a legitimate purpose, while Neal has said the information is necessary to determine whether the IRS is following its stated guidance of auditing sitting presidents and whether that applies to Trump’s businesses.
Neal’s next step will likely be a lawsuit against Mnuchin and Rettig for failure to comply with the law and his committee’s subpoena. That would open up another legal front in an ongoing struggle between House Democrats and the Trump administration over the president’s financial information.
“The law, by its terms, does not allow for discretion as to whether to comply with a request for tax returns and return information,” Neal said in a statement. “Given the Treasury Secretary’s failure to comply today, I am consulting with counsel on how best to enforce the subpoenas moving forward.”
In a separate court case, a federal judge heard arguments earlier this week over a House Oversight and Reform Committee subpoena of Trump’s accounting firm. The judge in that case questioned Trump’s argument that Congress cannot investigate the president for potential violations of the law and looks poised to quickly issue a ruling on a Trump’s initial effort to block that subpoena.
