Justice agency defends refusal on Trump’s taxes

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Friday released its legal rationale for refusing to provide President Donald Trump’s tax returns to Congress, arguing that House Democrats want to make the documents public, which “is not a legitimate legislative purpose.”

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had refused to hand the documents over early last month, writing in a letter to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., that the committee’s demand was “unprecedented” and could “have lasting consequences for all taxpayers.” After getting legal advice from the Justice Department, Mnuchin said he had determined the request should be refused.

A spokesman for the Ways and Means Committee said Friday evening that officials were reviewing the opinion.

Legal analysts have said Mnuchin’s move would be highly unusual, and some House Democrats have said they expected to take legal action to get a court to intervene. A confidential IRS legal memo obtained by The Washington Post says tax returns must be given to Congress — unless the president were to assert executive privilege, which he has not done in this instance.

The fight over the president’s tax records is one of several ongoing battles between congressional Democrats and the White House over access to documents and witnesses.

“The Chairman’s request that Treasury turn over the President’s tax returns, for the apparent purpose of making them public, amounted to an unprecedented use of the Committee’s authority and raised a serious risk of abuse,” Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel wrote in a 33-page memo dated Thursday. “Congress could not constitutionally confer upon itself the right to compel a disclosure by the Executive Branch of confidential information that does not serve a legitimate legislative purpose.”

Engel said while the executive branch “should accord due deference and respect to congressional requests,” it does not need to treat congressional demands “as unquestionable.”

The president, Engel wrote, “stands at the head of a co-equal branch of government, and he is separately accountable to the people for the faithful performance of his responsibilities. Treasury thus had the responsibility to confirm for itself that the Chairman’s request serves a legitimate legislative end.”