The Wall Street Journal: Mnuchin Says Treasury Won’t Meet Deadline for Trump Tax Returns

WASHINGTON—The Treasury Department didn't plan to meet Wednesday's deadline for handing President Trump's tax returns to House Democrats, as it continued to review the request, Secretary Steven Mnuchin wrote.

Mr. Mnuchin, in a letter on Wednesday to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Richard Neal (D., Mass.), said the request raises "serious issues" about whether the committee has a legitimate legislative purpose and how broad congressional investigatory powers are under the Constitution. Those are the issues that a court would consider if Treasury ultimately refuses Mr. Neal's request. Mr. Mnuchin wrote that he intends to supervise Treasury's response so that taxpayer protections are "scrupulously observed."

Mr. Neal sought six years' worth of the president's personal and business returns under a 1924 law that lets the leaders of the tax-writing committees obtain anyone's returns. That statute requires that the Treasury Secretary "shall furnish" them upon request. Mr. Neal set a deadline of Wednesday for the documents.

In the letter, Mr. Mnuchin cited Mr. Neal's own comments from last year about the unprecedented nature of the request and Mr. Mnuchin urged caution.

"The legal implications of this request could affect protections for all Americans against politically-motivated disclosures of personal tax information, regardless of which party is in power," the Treasury secretary wrote.

If the Treasury directs the Internal Revenue Service to ultimately comply with the request, documents that the president has long sought to keep private would be turned over to Mr. Neal, though they couldn't be revealed publicly without a committee vote. If the IRS rejects the request, Mr. Neal is likely to initiate legal maneuvers that would land the legislative and executive branches in court, fighting over whether the House has a legitimate legislative purpose for requesting the returns.

Mr. Neal had written the letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, because Treasury delegates its authority over the tax code to the agency. Mr. Rettig said earlier Wednesday that the IRS was working on the request but noted that the agency is part of the Treasury Department and Mr. Mnuchin was the one who responded.

"How many lawyers and how much time does it take for Secretary Mnuchin to understand that ‘shall' means ‘shall'?" said Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D., Texas), a Ways and Means member who has pressed for Mr. Trump's tax returns. "This partisan letter is just fancy repackaging of the same double talk Secretary Mnuchin offered to my questioning last month."

In a statement, Mr. Neal said he would consult with counsel and determine an appropriate response to Mr. Mnuchin.

Over the weekend, Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, said Democrats would never see Mr. Trump's returns. Mr. Rettig said he hasn't been instructed by anyone from the White House not to comply with Mr. Neal's request.

"House Democrats' unprecedented request has serious implications for all Americans and requires serious, careful analysis," Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) said in praising Mr. Mnuchin's response. "It's not meant to be used as a partisan tool by politicians to reveal a political opponent's private information. That's not a legitimate use of congressional authority and would set a dangerous precedent that can't be undone."

For his part, Mr. Trump on Wednesday returned to the claim he has made about his tax returns since the 2016 campaign, saying he would like to provide his returns but won't do so while he is under audit.

No law prevents him from releasing tax returns while he is under audit. All presidents are audited and Mr. Trump's predecessors have released their returns despite that. And any audit is irrelevant to the request Mr. Neal made under the law concerning the heads of tax-writing committees.

"Remember, I got elected last time, the same exact issue with the same intensity," Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House before leaving for Texas Wednesday morning. "Frankly, the people don't care."

Mr. Trump broke with four decades of precedent by refusing to disclose his tax returns as a presidential candidate in 2016 or after entering the White House, despite saying during the campaign that he would eventually release them.

Democratic presidential candidates have been releasing their tax returns and challenging Mr. Trump to follow suit. Most recently, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts released her 2018 return Wednesday after releasing earlier years' documents. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is expected to release 10 years of returns by next week.

"The law says the tax returns shall be provided," Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), said at the hearing with Mr. Rettig. "The law does not give anyone, not the Treasury secretary, not a White House official, the power to interfere."

Mr. Mnuchin said Wednesday and reiterated in the letter that the Treasury is consulting with the Justice Department over the request. Mr. Trump's lawyer had asked the Treasury last week to seek a formal Justice Department legal opinion.

The returns wouldn't provide a full picture of Mr. Trump's finances, but they would show his charitable contributions and tax strategies he has used. Other documents Mr. Neal has requested would shed light on the audits Mr. Trump has been complaining about, because they would reveal what the IRS and the president's lawyers have been disputing. None of those documents would become public unless the Ways and Means Committee votes to release them.

If the administration doesn't hand over the returns, Mr. Neal could issue a subpoena or file a lawsuit. In those cases, the questions would be about the extent of congressional inquiries and whether the request serves a legitimate legislative purpose. Mr. Trump's personal lawyer, William Consovoy, raised some of those issues in a letter to Treasury officials last week and Mr. Mnuchin echoed some of them in his letter on Wednesday.

Mr. Neal wrote in his request that he wants the tax returns so the Ways and Means Committee can examine whether the IRS is doing the audits properly. That, in part, will be the committee's claim of a legitimate legislative purpose.