The request that the IRS release Donald Trump’s tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee is not the first time such a request has been made. However, it does seem to be the first time such a request has been refused. Newly public documents show that when a House panel made the same request for Richard Nixon’s tax forms in 1973, it got them. And it got them the same day it made the request.
The Washington Post reports that the newly released documents show that the agency produced Nixon’s tax forms in both 1973 and 1974. In those years, Nixon, like Trump, had released a public financial statement, but had not made available his actual tax forms. As Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal made clear, the IRS complied with congressional requests “without delay or objection.”
The request made by the Joint Committee on Taxation in 1973 wasn’t just for that year’s taxes, but also for a review of Nixon’s tax returns from 1969 through 1972. They arrived within hours of that request reaching the IRS.
The request for Trump’s taxes was made in April, but the IRS has not only failed to turn over forms in three months, but Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has made it clear that he has no intention of producing the documents. Mnuchin has also refused to comply with a subpoena ordering the documents be produced.
Mnuchin’s argument is that the congressional request “isn’t related to any legislative purpose.” But the law stating that the IRS shall produce these forms on request doesn’t require that Congress meet any hurdle to make the request. It just says the IRS shall comply with the request.
That Trump should be impeached may be a matter for debate. But that Mnuchin should be facing jail for his refusal to comply with plain law should be a universal opinion.
The Nixon documents had previously been classified, but the Ways and Means Committee voted on Thursday to make the documents public. Republicans responded by attacking Neal and Democrats on the committee for “unprecedented overreach.” That overreach: letting the public know the historical context of their request for Trump’s tax forms, and that Mnuchin had lied about exactly this issue when he claimed that such a request had not been made.
Republicans did bring up one big difference: Nixon did not fight the release of his taxes. There seems to be no material difference between the requests being made at this time and those made in Nixon’s case—except the most important one. Even in Richard Nixon’s White House, neither Nixon nor the staff felt that they were completely immune to congressional oversight.