During a two-hour hearing on Capitol Hill, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin made it clear that he would comply with an obscure law that could compel him to turn over Trump’s records.
CNN reports that Mnuchin, himself no stranger to grift, told Democrats that he would comply with U.S. tax code section 6103, which allows three committees to request confidential tax returns which the Treasury secretary “shall furnish.”
“I will consult with the legal department within Treasury, and I will comply with the law,” Mnuchin said while refusing to comment on any discussions had with general counsel. “But we will follow the law and we will protect the president as we would protect any individual taxpayer under their rights,” he added according to Reuters.
In his remarks, however, Mnuchin made it clear that such a decision may ultimately need to be made by the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.
“There’s a lot of interest in 6103 today,” Mnuchin said, according to CNN. Mnuchin also made it clear that Trump had not asked him to intervene in the matter or held any discussions with anyone inside the White House.
Richard Neal, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, is expected to request documents from Mnuchin soon and may request both his personal and business returns in the coming weeks.
While Democrats seemed to have dropped any real hope of pushing for Trump to release his tax returns since the summer of 2017, their fervor has been renewed since former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s series of appearances in front of Congress late last month. Cohen told lawmakers that Trump regularly inflated the value of his assets to impress magazines while lashing employee wages to lower his tax bills.
If Democrats are able to obtain Trump’s tax returns, Senate Finance Committee Chair Chuck Grassley is expected to seek them as well.