Priorities.
Via Daily Mail:
House Democrats are said to be ready ‘to take all necessary steps’ to get hold of Donald Trump’s personal tax returns.
The top tax-writing committee in the House will request the files within the next few weeks, NBC News reports.
The Ways and Means Committee is the only group in the House who can directly request the president’s returns and chairman Richard Neal is said to be starting the process by asking their attorneys to prepare the request.
The decision on whether to grant the request will fall with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
A spokeswoman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said: ‘Every day the American people and Congress learn more about President Trump’s improprieties, from conflicts of interest to influence peddling, potential tax evasion and violations of the Constitution — all roads leading back to President Trump’s finances.
‘These improprieties, and the lack of transparency around them, give the House legitimate legislative, oversight and legal reasons to review the President’s tax returns. We will take all necessary steps, including litigation, if necessary, to obtain them.’
Neal had earlier suggested he might wait until the end of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump and Russia.
But after Michael Cohen urged Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to demand the president’s IRS returns the case for Congress to obtain the returns was strengthened, aides told NBC.
Cohen, in response to Ocasio-Cortez’s inquires, revealed additional details on how Trump provided insurance companies with financials that exaggerated his assets and wealth but wanted to reduce his real estate taxes – and if the president lied on insurance and IRS forms to make this happen, that would be fraud.
Earlier in his nearly five hours before the committee, Cohen also said he didn’t know if the president’s tax returns were being audited, which is the reason Trump gave for not releasing them during the 2016 campaign even though other presidential contenders have released such information.
‘Mr. Cohen, do you know whether President Trump’s tax returns were really under audit by the IRS in 2016?’ Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez asked him.
‘I don’t know the answer. I asked for a copy of the audit so that I could use it in terms of my statements to the press, and I was never able to obtain one,’ Cohen said.