Democrats will 'never' see Trump tax returns – White House chief of staff
Democrats in Congress will “never” see Donald Trump’s tax returns, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said on Sunday.
Mulvaney accused Democrats of engaging in a “political stunt” after the chair of the House ways and means committee, Richard Neal, this week asked the Internal Revenue Service to provide six years of the president’s personal tax returns and the returns for some of his businesses.
“That is not going to happen and they know it,” Mulvaney told Fox News Sunday.
Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat who is one of only three officials authorized to request tax returns, requested Trump’s personal and business returns in a letter to IRS commissioner Charles Rettig. He asked for returns covering 2013 through 2018. He also asked for the documents in seven days, setting a 10 April deadline.
An obscure 1924 statute includes no exceptions to Neal’s authority to ask for returns and says the treasury “shall furnish” them when requested. It does require a review be conducted in “closed executive session” if the returns are provided without the taxpayer’s consent.
Mulvaney said the law provides narrow exceptions for lawmakers to review tax returns but Democrats “knew they are not going to get [Trump’s] taxes”.
“They know what the law is,” he said. “They know that one of the fundamental principles of the IRS is to protect the confidentiality of you and me and everybody else who files taxes. They know that.
“They know the terms under law by which the IRS can give them documents but a political hit job is not one of those reasons.”
Michigan representative Dan Kildee, a member of the tax committee, hit back.
“This is a legitimate authority that the Congress has,” he told ABC’s This Week. “This president, by the way, is the least transparent president we’ve had in half a century.
“It is not up to President Trump, it is not up to some lawyer that President Trump hires, to determine whether” his tax returns can be sought, Kildee said. “This is not an autocracy. The president does not get to decide for himself and for Congress what a legitimate subject of inquiry might be.”
On Friday, an attorney for Trump said the request “would set a dangerous precedent” and contended that the IRS cannot legally divulge the information.
William Consovoy said in a letter to the treasury general counsel the tax code guards taxpayer privacy. Requests for returns “must have a legitimate legislative purpose”, he said.
Unveiling his request for Trump’s returns, Neal said the IRS had a policy of auditing the tax returns of all sitting presidents and vice-presidents, “yet little is known about the effectiveness of this program”.
“On behalf of the American people,” he said, “the ways and means committee must determine if that policy is being followed, and if so, whether these audits are conducted fully and appropriately.”
Trump broke with precedent but not law when he chose not to release any tax returns while he was a candidate, though portions of some returns were leaked to media outlets. On Sunday Mulvaney insisted the issue was “already litigated during the election” and the American people “elected him anyway”.
The Utah Republican senator Mitt Romney, the 2012 presidential nominee who has been an occasional critic of Trump, told NBC's Meet the Press the Democrats’ attempt to get the tax returns were “moronic”.
Trump should release his tax returns, Romney said, but by demanding them “the Democrats are just playing along [with] his handbook”.
Trump has said he will not release returns because he is under audit, something he reiterated on Friday while visiting the US-Mexico border.
“When you’re under audit you don’t do it,” he said.
IRS officials have said taxpayers under audit are free to release their returns.
At a news conference following his election, Trump said his filings were too complex for people to understand.