The U.S. Treasury Department said Wednesday it would be unable to make Donald Trump's taxes available by the April 10 deadline set by the House Ways and Means Committee.
"The Treasury Department will not be able to complete its review of your request by that date," Secretary Mnuchin wrote in a letter to Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal.
First of all, Neal didn't request Trump's taxes from Mnuchin, who by the by just happened to admit under oath this week that Treasury officials have been conferring with White House officials about the matter. Anyway, Neal directed his request for six years of Trump's tax returns to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, the guy who argued against Trump releasing his returns before Trump appointed him to the post.
Anyway, Mnuchin is apparently taking over "to observe that taxpayer protections and applicable laws are scrupulously observed," as he put it. Mnuchin also spent a good portion of his letter scrupulously observing the rhetoric of GOP lawmakers on the topic. He kicked off his explanation for missing the deadline by noting that, when GOP lawmakers held the House majority, they declared it would be an "abuse of authority" and "set a dangerous precedent" to target an individual's tax returns "for political purposes."
Anyway, it doesn't really matter what Mnuchin said. Here’s what does matter:
- everyone within the administration working on this is an overt Trump loyalist—Mnuchin, Rettig, and the IRS general counsel who Trump hurried through the nomination process
- White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney promised on national TV last weekend that the American people would "never" see Trump's taxes.
And then there's this little footnote from Trump's co-author on The Art of the Deal:
Read the Mnuchin letter below.