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The foot-dragging by House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal to subpoena Donald Trump's tax returns is a huge failure on the part of Democratic House leadership to respond to the mandate voters gave them in 2018, putting them back in control of the House. That reluctance means it's unlikely those returns will be public before the 2020 election. Trump will have succeeded in destroying yet another norm.
At this point, the legal process in obtaining those returns is likely to take us well into next year, legal experts and policy makers have told The Washington Post. "For it to be resolved by fall 2020 would amount to Democrats drawing a possible but improbable legal 'perfect straight,' according to Harry Sandick, former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York." That's frustrating some House Democrats, one of whom calls it a "painstakingly slow process [that] may prove detrimental to us getting the returns by next November."
That lawmaker asked for anonymity to be able to speak frankly about his or her frustrations. Not all members are so circumspect. Reps. Lloyd Doggett of Texas, Pramila Jayapal of Washington, and Raúl Grijalva of Arizona have all publicly called on Neal to act and to act swiftly. Doggett has called the delay "inexplicable" and said that the lawsuit finally filed last month to obtain the returns, after the administration stonewalled both a formal request and a subpoena, "should have been done a long time ago."
That same lawmaker who requested anonymity, along with a Democratic aide to a member on the committee, suggested to the Post that Neal is simply not responding to how broken the Congress is right now and the reality of the Republican party of 2019. "When discussing the subject of the tax returns, Neal frequently tells stories of bipartisan cooperation under former Ways and Means Committee leaders, particularly Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), pining for an era of political comity that others on the committee believe no longer exists, these people said." He "has no enthusiasm for dealing with the tax returns issue," another member told the Post. The fact that Neal is refusing thus far even to obtain Trump's state tax returns from New York, which a new state law authorizes him to do, demonstrates his reluctance to act.
Neal also has some sort-of defenders. "We had no way of anticipating how obstructive Trump would be in his personal capacity and as president," a senior Democratic House aide said. Oh, really. This was news to them after the first half of his term in office? They weren't prepared for him, one of if not the most litigious corporate figures of modern times, to try to run the clock out on this in court. Uh-huh. Says another defender of Neal, Rep. Dan Kildee, "I understand people's frustration. […] But I think it’s misplaced. [Neal's] done this by the book because he knows it's more [important] to get this right than to get it 30 days faster." Unless we're talking about October 3, 2020, rather than November 3, 2020, and an informed voting public. Every day between now and Election Day counts.
Perhaps, just perhaps, the timeline will be sped a bit by the revelation from a whistleblower that there is "possible misconduct" within the IRS concerning an audit of Trump. The whistleblower could also potentially give information to the committee about Trump's tax returns. The law allows IRS whistleblowers to share information with Congress. If Neal will ask for it. The specifics of that evidence isn't clear, but the committee's lawyers are using it in a motion to U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden to expedite his enforcement of their subpoena. The appeal process, though, could still drag this out until the next election.
Which unfortunately has appeared to be the strategy of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top chairmen, with the possible exception of Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler—drag this out until 2020 and make the voters do the dirty work of getting rid of Trump. A formal impeachment inquiry now seems inevitable, with a majority of House Democrats now calling for the inquiry, and more jumping onboard every day. Pelosi and team—especially Neal—are just going to have to catch up. A good start would be getting those New York state returns.