OPINION: Congress wants to reveal Trump's biggest secret

The request by House Democrats for six years of Donald Trump's tax returns opens a serious new political, legal, constitutional and personal front in the party's battle to use its new majority to check a defiant President.

It is a bid to solve one of the most tantalizing and enduring mysteries of Trump's 2016 campaign and his presidency -- what is it in the President's unseen financial and business life that he doesn't want Americans to see?

The historic move, made official by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal on Wednesday, is all but certain to unleash a legal battle narrowing in on Trump's most guarded secrets that could drag on for months or even years while shaping the terrain of the 2020 election.

The confrontation, will in its broadest sense, establish the extent to which Congress has the power to examine the executive and enforce a long-observed norm -- that party nominees and Presidents release their returns to the public.
Trump broke that tradition in 2016 and has refused to release any tax records since, always claiming that his financial arrangements are under a government audit and that he would put himself at a disadvantage by being transparent.

But Democrats say this is not a matter of choice, it's the law, as they yet again seek to straddle the fine line between legitimate oversight and the risk of being seen as overreaching in a way that could rebound against them politically.
The request represents a remarkable moment and another monument to the unconventional nature of the Trump era, since no Congress has attempted such a challenge before -- simply because no President in recent times has resisted such a basic test of transparency.

Neal, the only Democrat on Capitol Hill with the power to take such action, is using a little-known IRS code in requesting six years of Trump's personal returns and also wants records from eight of the President's business entities. His request is narrowly targeted and rooted in a legal technicality.

But supporters of the drive to get clarity on Trump's taxes argue that it is vital for Congress to establish whether Trump has any conflicts of interest that bear on his official duties and to see whether he is getting payments from foreign states in violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution.