Dems may make another play for Trump tax returns
WASHINGTON — The new Democratic-controlled House is looking at proposals to compel presidents and presidential candidates to make public years of their tax returns. But the burning question is what Democrats might do more immediately to get such files from President Donald Trump.
That goal has been high on their list of priorities since they won control of the House in November’s midterm elections, but asking for Trump’s returns is likely to set off a huge legal battle with his administration.
Democrats have failed several times to obtain Trump’s returns as the minority party in Congress. But their newly energized leftward wing is pushing the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., to quickly set the quest in motion. The organization funded by billionaire investor and Democratic activist Tom Steyer has run a TV ad in Neal’s home district calling on him to subpoena Trump’s tax records, as a prelude to starting impeachment proceedings.
“I think overwhelmingly the public wants to see the president’s tax returns. They want to know the truth, they want to know the facts,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at a news conference Thursday. But she warned that the move cannot be made in haste.
The issue came to the fore in a hearing Thursday by the Ways and Means oversight subcommittee.
The subcommittee was examining a proposal that would require all presidents, vice presidents and candidates for those offices to make public 10 years of tax returns. It’s part of House Democrats’ comprehensive elections and ethics reform package. The legislation would also make it easier for citizens to vote and ban executive-branch officials from lobbying their old agency for two years after they leave government.
While the ethics bill includes a range of reforms, some Democrats have made clear that one of their chief targets is Trump. Some elements of the bill have bipartisan support, but the overall package is unlikely to advance in the Republicancontrolled Senate.
By law, as chairman of the tax-writing House panel, Neal can make a written request for any tax returns to the Treasury secretary, who oversees the Internal Revenue Service. The law says the Treasury chief “shall furnish” the requested information to the members of the Ways and Means Committee for them to examine behind closed doors.
Yet there’s no guarantee that the administration will comply. That sets up the possibility of a legal battle that could take years to resolve.
Neal has said little on the subject, focusing his early committee efforts on issues such as health insurance, retirement security and prescription drug prices.
“I think we will,” Neal said when asked whether the panel under his control would ask for the documents. If the administration then mounted a legal challenge, he added, “I assume that there would be a court case that would go on for a period of time.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin “will review any request with the Treasury general counsel for legality,” the department has said.
Democrats want to explore numerous questions about Trump’s financial webs. Among them: whether there are conflicts of interest between his companies and his presidential actions, what the sources of his income are and to whom he might be beholden as a result, whether he’s properly paid taxes and whether he benefited from the sweeping Republican-written tax law enacted in late 2017.