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U.S. NEWS Thursday 4 april 2019

House chairman asks IRS for 6 years of Trump’s tax returns

Continued from Front cans have a fundamental them to examine behind
right to the privacy of the closed doors.
Neal made the request in personal information found A spokesman for Mnuchin
a letter to IRS Commission- in their tax returns.” didn’t immediately re-
er Charles Rettig, asking The legal battle set to en- spond to requests for com-
for Trump’s personal and sue could take years to ment.
business returns for 2013 resolve, possibly stretching Mnuchin suggested in tes-
through 2018. He asked for beyond the 2020 presiden- timony to Congress last
the documents in seven tial election. month that he would pro-
days, setting an April 10 Trump broke with decades tect Trump’s privacy if the
deadline. of tradition for presidential House Democrats request-
Trump told reporters candidates by refusing to ed his tax returns. “We will
Wednesday he “would not release his income tax fil- examine the request and
be inclined” to provide his ings during his 2016 cam- we will follow the law ...
tax returns to the commit- paign. He has said he won’t and we will protect the
tee. release them because president as we would pro-
An IRS spokesman said the he is being audited, even tect any taxpayer” regard- House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal,
agency had no immedi- though IRS officials have ing their right to privacy, D-Mass., arrives for a Democratic Caucus meeting at the Capitol
ate comment on Neal’s re- said taxpayers under au- Mnuchin said.q in Washington, on April 2, 2019.
quest. dit are free to release their Associated Press
Democrats insist that ob- returns. Trump claimed at
taining Trump’s tax filings a news conference follow-
falls within their mandate ing the November election
of congressional oversight. that the filings are too com-
Republicans have de- plex for people to under-
nounced it as a political stand.
witch hunt and invoked pri- The IRS has a policy of au-
vacy concerns. diting the tax returns of
“We have completed the all sitting presidents and
necessary groundwork for vice presidents, “yet little
a request of this magni- is known about the effec-
tude, and I am certain we tiveness of this program,”
are within our legitimate Neal said in the statement.
legislative, legal and over- “On behalf of the Ameri-
sight rights,” Neal said in can people, the Ways and
a statement Wednesday Means Committee must
evening. determine if that policy is
Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, being followed, and if so,
the senior Republican on whether these audits are
the Ways and Means pan- conducted fully and ap-
el, denounced the move propriately.”
as “an abuse of the tax- Neal is one of only three
writing committees’ statu- congressional officials au-
tory authority.” thorized under to make a
“Weaponizing our nation’s written request to the Trea-
tax code by targeting po- sury secretary for anyone’s
litical foes sets a danger- tax returns. The Internal
ous precedent and weak- Revenue Service is part of
ens Americans’ privacy the Treasury Department.
rights,” Brady wrote in a let- A rarely used 1924 law says
ter Wednesday to Treasury the Treasury chief “shall fur-
Secretary Steven Mnuchin, nish” the requested mate-
who oversees the IRS. “As rial to members of the Ways
you know, by law all Ameri- and Means Committee for