REQUEST DENIED: Treasury Department REJECTS Request For Trump’s Tax Returns!

Full text:

Dear Chairman Neal:

I write in further response to your letter of April 3, 2019, requesting the confidential tax returns (and other return information) of President Trump and related business entities for 2013 through 2018, pursuant to 26 U.S.C. § 6103(f).

As you have recognized, the Committee's request is unprecedented, and it presents serious constitutional questions, the resolution of which may have lasting consequences for all taxpayers. Accordingly, the Department of the Treasury has consulted with the Department of Justice concerning the lawfulness of your request. As explained in my April 23 letter, the Committee's statutory authority under section 6103(f) is bounded by Congress's authority under the Constitution, and the Supreme Court has held that the Constitution requires that Congressional information demands must reasonably serve a legitimate legislative purpose.

In reliance on the advice of the Department of Justice, I have determined that the Committee's request lacks a legitimate legislative purpose, and pursuant to section 6103, the Department is therefore not authorized to disclose the requested returns and return information.

The Department of Justice has informed us that it intends to memorialize its advice in a published legal opinion as soon as practicable. Out of respect for the deadlines previously set by the Committee, and consistent with our commitment to a prompt response, I am informing you now that the Department may not lawfully fulfill the Committee's request.

Although the Department is unable to provide you with the requested confidential tax returns and return information, we renew our previous offer to provide information concerning the Committee's stated interest in how the IRS conducts mandatory examinations of Presidents, as provided by the Internal Revenue Manual. If the Committee is interested, we remain committed to providing such an accommodation.

And from Fox News:

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in a letter Monday, denied House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal's request for President Trump's tax returns, saying the request lacked a “legitimate legislative purpose.”

“As you have recognized, the Committee’s request is unprecedented, and it presents serious constitutional questions, the resolution of which may have lasting consequences for all taxpayers,” the letter read.

Mnuchin told the Massachusetts Democrat he'd relied on the advice of the Justice Department. He concluded that the department was “not authorized to disclose the requested returns and return information.”

“The Department of Justice has informed us that it intends to memorialize its advice in a published legal opinion as soon as practicable. Out of respect for the deadlines previously set by the Committee, and consistent with our commitment to a prompt response, I am informing you now that the Department may not lawfully fulfill the Committee’s request,” the letter read.

The move, which was expected, is sure to set in motion a legal battle over Trump’s tax returns. The likely options available to Democrats would be to subpoena the Internal Revenue Service for the returns or to file a lawsuit.

Neal originally demanded access to Trump’s tax returns in early April under a law that said the IRS “shall furnish” the returns of any taxpayer to a handful of top lawmakers, including the chair of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

The White House and the president’s attorneys declined to comment on the deadline to turn over Trump’s returns. Trump already has signaled he has no intention of turning over the much-coveted records.

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