JUST IN: House Democrats Subpoena President Trump’s Tax Returns!

This was the report on CNN:

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal has issued subpoenas for President Donald Trump's tax returns, the committee told CNN on Friday, an escalation in the fight for the President's personal financial records and the latest step this week in Democrats' battle for information from the Trump administration.

Neal sent subpoenas to both IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. A Treasury spokesman confirmed to CNN it has received Neal's subpoena request.

Neal, who has unilateral subpoena power, took the step days after the Treasury Department formally denied Neal's request for six years of the President's personal and business tax returns earlier this week.

While Neal did not need a subpoena to eventually move to court, he issued the subpoenas on the advice of House counsel whom he consulted throughout the process about how to build the strongest legal case.

Unlike other requests for information coming from House Democrats, Neal is relying on a decades-old tax statute -- 6103 -- that says that the House Ways and Means chairman, Senate Finance Committee chairman or chief of staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation can request any individual's tax information in the course of their legislative business. Democrats have argued under that statute they have the ability to request Trump's tax returns even without a subpoena, but internal deliberations got Neal to the point where the advice was that a subpoena could bolster the case in court. The Democrats on Neal's committee have argued that they need access to the President's tax returns in order to understand how the IRS administers the presidential audit program even as Republicans and the Treasury Department have argued it is not a legitimate legislative purpose. 

"After consulting with the Justice Department, the Treasury Department has come to the firm conclusion that we have known since day one: this request from House Democrats to weaponize the tax code for purely political reasons is illegitimate and should be treated as such," Rep. Kevin Brady, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement this week.

Neal's move is expected to eventually be followed by action to go to court, a process that could take months or even years.

Neal -- a Massachusetts Democrat who has waited years to hold the gavel of House Ways and Means and is invested in making policy reforms that would cement a legacy beyond the tax fight -- was an unlikely figure to lead the charge for the President's closely-held financial information. While Neal has said from the outset that he planned to request Trump's tax returns, the fight has forced a business-minded and pragmatic Democrat to be a face of opposition to Trump even as Neal has worked hard behind the scenes to foster relationships with the Treasury secretary and the President himself to lay the groundwork for infrastructure negotiations moving forward.

And confirmed by the NY Times:

The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee subpoenaed the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service on Friday, disregarding the Treasury secretary’s refusal this week to hand over six years of President Trump’s personal and business tax returns and demanding access.

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The subpoenas from Representative Richard E. Neal, Democrat of Massachusetts, to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Charles P. Rettig, the I.R.S. commissioner, amounted to an unexpected shift in tactics in the yearslong Democratic effort to secure tax returns that President Trump has refused to release. Mr. Mnuchin had rejected a request for the returns made under a little-known provision of the federal tax code that dates back to the Teapot Dome scandal of Warren G. Harding’s administration nearly a century ago.

So Mr. Neal is turning to a more conventional avenue: the subpoena.

“After reviewing the options available to me, and upon the advice of counsel, I issued a subpoena today to the secretary of the Treasury and the commissioner of the I.R.S. for six years of personal and business returns,” Mr. Neal said. “While I do not take this step lightly, I believe this action gives us the best opportunity to succeed and obtain the requested material.”

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