On Tuesday, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal filed a lawsuit against the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service, demanding the release of Donald Trump’s tax forms as required under law. This comes after more than two months of attempting to get the IRS and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to provide the forms first by request, and then by subpoena.
Trump has been blocking public transparency on every front. This has included preventing both current and former White House officials from testifying under a greatly expanded view of privilege; instructing staffers to ignore congressional subpoenas; and throwing a big privilege blanket over items as large as the entire Mueller report. But there may be no instance in which Trump’s effort to cover up is quite so blatant as the refusal by the Treasury Department to hand over Trump’s tax forms—a requirement that is absolutely clear under law dating back to 1924.
But just as with Kellyanne Conway’s violations of the Hatch Act, the Trump White House seems to think that laws only exist for other people. As The Washington Post reports, acting chief of staff and still, somehow, budget director Mick Mulvaney has declared that Democrats will “never” see Trump’s official forms.
Both Mulvaney and Mnuchin have said that the reason House representatives have been seeking Trump’s forms is “partisan” or “not related to a legislative function.” And both are continuing to ignore the fact that the law on producing these forms says nothing about either position. House members don’t have to prove anything about their motives. There are no forms to fill out or hurdles to clear. They only have to request, and the IRS “shall comply.” Except it hasn’t complied, which is why the whole thing is now headed to court.
Why Neal waited out two months without moving to take the matter to court isn’t clear. And it’s also not clear how quickly the issue will be taken up by the federal courts. But at least this seems to be a move toward seeking a resolution.