IRS blows deadline to hand over Trump tax returns

Steve Mnuchin says the final decision on the release of Trump’s tax returns is coming next month.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin left little doubt Tuesday that the administration will reject a congressional request for President Donald Trump's tax returns by a self-imposed May 6 target for a "final decision," setting the stage for a legal battle that will test the limits of congressional oversight.

In a 10-page letter to House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.), who formally requested Trump's returns on April 3, Mnuchin questioned Neal's motives and laid out "some of the legal concerns" the administration has with the request. While Neal has argued that the committee needs to see the returns as part of its oversight of the IRS, Mnuchin wrote that is a “pretext” for the Democrats’ aim to make Trump’s returns public, which Mnuchin called “constitutionally suspect.”

Neal, who had set a 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline for the IRS to turn over the documents, said in a statement that he plans to "consult with counsel about my next steps.” He is likely to subpoena the documents at some point and, given the administration’s resistance to subpoenas issued or threatened by other committees, the dispute is expected to wind up in court.

Mnuchin's letter reads like a legal brief in many places. It includes two appendices and nearly three dozen footnotes, mostly citing media reports about the dispute and press releases from Democrats, along with transcripts of statements they made, about plans to publicly disclose Trump’s tax returns. It reinforces assumptions that the administration will challenge the request on grounds that Neal has no legitimate legislative or policy purpose for seeking them.

Neal is invoking a law that allows the chairs of the two congressional committees with tax jurisdiction to examine anyone's tax returns. Ways and Means needs to be able to vet IRS audits of the president, he has said, though Democrats also make no secret of their desire to examine Trump's returns for evidence of possible financial malfeasance and other wrongdoing.