Analysis: The legal argument behind Mnuchin refusing to give Congress Trump’s tax returns
By Amber Phillips Amber Phillips Reporter for The Fix covering Congress, statehouses Email Bio Follow May 7 at 12:13 PM The fight for Congress to obtain President Trump’s tax returns centers on one question: Is Congress requesting them for a legislative reason?
So what legislation is Congress going to introduce, or consider introducing, based on Trump’s tax returns? That’s where the Trump administration thinks it has a case to make. But Congress has no idea how thorough the IRS is with this. Does it do a full audit? A cursory check looking only for red flags? A Democratic committee aide pointed out that the IRS has appeared to go easy on a president before. Richard Nixon once received a letter from the agency saying that his taxes were a-okay, only for Congress to find out that he owed $500,000 in interest and back taxes.
Trump’s Republican supporters argue that that scenario seems plausible, if not likely. “Big difference [between] legitimate congressional oversight & using the IRS as a political weapon,” tweeted Sen. Charles E. Grassley , chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
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