Introduction and summary
Donald Trump has reneged on a promise he made nearly four years ago to release his tax returns publicly. By keeping his returns hidden, he has broken the precedent every president and major party nominee for president has followed over the past 40 years. His actions also heighten concerns about what he could be hiding.
The new Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives has pledged to conduct the kind of vigorous oversight of the executive branch that has been lacking for the past two years. As part of that oversight agenda, House leaders have said that they intend to invoke their authority under the law to obtain Trump’s tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and to review them. Trump’s Treasury Department is threatening to withhold the returns from Congress and take the issue to the courts, where his team reportedly hopes to bog down the request in a “quagmire of arcane legal arguments.”1 But the law could not be clearer: Congress’ tax committees have the authority to obtain Trump’s tax returns on request—and the U.S. Treasury Department has no basis for refusing. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin would be violating the law if he directs the IRS to stonewall Congress. Continue reading “President Trump Cannot Hide His Tax Returns From Congress”