It’s about time
What is Trump so desperate to hide?
House Ways and Means Committee chair Richard Neal (D-MA) formally requested six years of Donald Trump’s tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service Wednesday, setting up a likely legal fight with the administration over the request.
Trump is the first president in decades not to make his tax returns publicly available. The request could shed new light and answer longstanding questions about Trump’s finances.
Neal also requested the returns for eight of Trump’s business entities in a move that could provide yet more detail on the president’s financial history.
In making the request, Neal invoked an obscure Roaring Twenties-era provision that empowers the head of the ways and means committee – as well as two other congressional committees – to request the tax returns of any filer.
The law has never been challenged. Nixon, Ford and Rockefeller all had their returns turned over by the IRS.
In fact, the law was created in the aftermath of Warren Harding’s Teapot Dome scandal. Back then only the President, who of course was neck-deep in scandal, could get any individual’s tax return. The legislation specifically grants that right to the Chair of the Ways and Means Committee. Also, I believe, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, who, of course, is a Rethug.
Part of this kills me. House Ways and Means Committee chair Richard Neal (D-MA) thought he was going to get some credit for waiting to make the request. WTF?
Democrats still don’t get that Republicans will take the bad faith line of attack NO MATTER what. Doing or not doing something based on how the Republicans are going to react is just stupidity.
If you read the letter, it is very carefully crafted. What’s being overlooked are the specific requests he made about Trump business returns. They were designed to also get info on hundreds of Trump’s shell companies.
BTW, I don’t think that Neal is doing it for publicity. He has consistently shunned any and all public interviews. I think he’s doing it the right way.