Simple. Do exactly what the Obama administration did over every request from Congress: don’t turn it over. And at least here, you would be justified by the law, unlike the Obama administration.
Via The Hill:
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin faces a challenging test after Democrats formally requested President Trump’s tax returns.
Mnuchin has been one of Trump’s most loyal Cabinet members, defending the president’s policies and personal conduct when others have shied away.
Now as the president’s chief line of defense he will have to balance his loyalty to Trump against a request that many experts say leaves him little wiggle room.
“[The] request tests Mnuchin’s oath of office: whether Mnuchin will faithfully execute the laws of the United States, or whether Mnuchin will bend to the will of the president,” said Steve Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center who testified before Congress in February about the need to request Trump’s tax returns.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) Wednesday evening sent IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig a request for six years’ worth of Trump’s personal and business tax returns. Neal made the request under a part of Section 6103 of the federal tax code that states that the Treasury Secretary “shall furnish” tax returns to the chairmen of Congress’s tax committees upon written request, so long as the documents are viewed in a closed session.
Trump — the first president in decades to not voluntarily disclose any of his returns — quickly indicated his dislike for the request.
“Until such time as I’m not under audit I would not be inclined to do that,” he said Wednesday.
When asked Thursday if he would direct the IRS to not disclose his returns, Trump said, “They’ll speak to my lawyers and they’ll speak to the attorney general.”
As head of the department that includes the IRS, Mnuchin will face pressure from Trump and congressional Republicans to push back on Democrats’ request.
Key Republicans are critical of the request. The top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), argued in a letter to Mnuchin Wednesday that the request is “an abuse of the tax-writing committees’ statutory authority,” and he said it weakens Americans’ right to have their personal information kept private.