With Democrats now controlling the House and holding the legal key to seeking President Donald Trump’s tax returns, Republican lawmakers are invoking privacy in defending Trump’s flank.
WASHINGTON — The new Democratic-controlled House is looking at proposals to compel presidents and presidential candidates to make public years of their tax returns. But the burning question is what Democrats might do more immediately to get such files from President Donald Trump.
That goal has been high on their list of priorities since they won control of the House in November’s midterm elections, but asking for Trump’s returns is likely to set off a huge legal battle with his administration.
The Democrats tried and failed several times to obtain Trump’s returns as the minority party in Congress. Their newly energized leftward wing is pushing the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., to set the quest in motion, and fast. The organization funded by billionaire investor and Democratic activist Tom Steyer has run a TV ad in Neal’s home district calling on him to subpoena Trump’s tax records, as a prelude to starting impeachment proceedings.
The issue comes to the fore in a hearing Thursday by the Ways and Means oversight subcommittee.
“I think overwhelmingly the public wants to see the president’s tax returns. They want to know the truth, they want to know the facts,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Democrats’ leader, said at a news conference Thursday. But she warned that the move cannot be made in haste.
“As I’ve said, we’re in our first month…. In terms of the tax returns, it’s not just a question of sending a letter; you have to do it in a very careful way.
