Treasury Department to miss Democrats’ deadline for releasing Trump’s tax returns
Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin says his department is unable to provide President Trump’s tax returns to Congress by Wednesday’s deadline.
Mnuchin told House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), who made the request a week ago, that Treasury respects congressional oversight but needs more time to review the “unprecedented” request.
Mnuchin said Neal’s request raised important questions of “constitutional scope of congressional investigative authority, the legitimacy of the asserted legislative purpose, and the constitutional rights of American citizens.”
He quoted Capitol Hill Republicans who called the request “Nixonian” and who warned that it could set a precedent for disclosing personal tax information for political purposes.
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Trump told reporters on the White House lawn Wednesday that “I would love to give them, but I’m not going to do it while I’m under audit.”
Neal has asked the IRS to turn over six years of the president’s tax returns by the end of the day.
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