Republican Rep. Mark Sanford (SC-01) is the first Republican in Congress to publicly call on Donald Trump to release his tax returns in light of his joint press conference with Vladmir Putin. A press conference in which the president of the United States stood before the world and rejected U.S. Intelligence assessments that the Russians interfered in U.S. elections, siding with murderous Putin over the FBI.
Everyone from former FBI Director James Comey, Hillary Clinton and former CIA Director John Brennan began proclaiming what we could all see with our own two eyes: Donald Trump appears to be bowing to Vladmir Putin, acting like a man compromised. As speculation grows that former KGB chief Vladmir Putin has kompromat (compromising information) on Donald Trump, Sanford notes that one thing Trump could do to clear his name would be to immediately release his tax returns, something Trump has promised to do on multiple occasions and is apparently hoping we’ll all forget about.
In fact, Congress does have the power to make Donald Trump’s tax returns public. Rep. Bill Pascrell (NJ-09) asked his colleagues on the House Ways and Means Committee to do just that in February 2017:
Pascrell, a Democrat from Paterson who serves on the Ways and Means Committee, has asked the committee’s chairman, Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, to order the Treasury Department to provide tax returns to the committee. Brady's office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
After privately examining returns -- Pascrell is seeking 10 years' worth -- the committee could decide to share them with the full House, which would in effect make them public. The 1924 law gives congressional committees that set tax policy the power to examine tax returns. It was used in 1974 when Congress looked at President Richard Nixon's returns, and in 2014 when the Ways and Means Committee released confidential tax information as part of its investigation into the Internal Revenue Service's handling of applications for nonprofit status.
Twenty-three Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee blocked Pascrell’s efforts and that was the end of that.
Sanford suffered a primary defeat after criticizing Donald Trump, one of the only members of his party to take a public stance against Trump on tariffs.
In the end, Trump’s tax returns are a matter of national security. Republicans and Democrats alike should be uniting to demand Donald Trump finally fulfill his promise to release his tax returns.