Trump tax-record matter draws inquiry

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department’s acting inspector general has opened an investigation into whether President Donald Trump’s administration acted improperly during its ongoing fight with House Democrats over releasing Trump’s tax returns.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has refused to comply with a request from House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., for six years of the president’s business and financial returns. Democrats have said a 1924 law explicitly gives them the authority to request the documents, but Mnuchin has denied the request and now the matter is pending in federal court.

A focus of the fight is the mandatory audit program that the Internal Revenue Service conducts on the tax returns of the president and vice president.

In July, an IRS whistleblower filed a complaint with lawmakers and relayed concerns that at least one Treasury Department official attempted to interfere in that audit process.

On Monday, Neal sent a letter to Richard Delmar, the Treasury Department’s acting inspector general, and asked for an investigation.

“I want to be assured that Treasury, including the [IRS], is enforcing the law in a fair and impartial manner and no one is endeavoring to intimidate or impede government officials and employees carrying out their duties,” Neal wrote in the letter.

Asked if the investigation encompassed the whistleblower complaint, Delmar referred instead to Neal’s letter and said the investigation would focus on matters the lawmaker raised.