Justice Ministry says Congress can not force the IRS to provide Trump's tax returns

The Office of the Legal Counsel of the Department of Justice released a memo on Friday supporting the Treasury Department's position that Congress is not allowed to view President Trump's tax returns. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin refused to comply with a subpoena to appear before the House of Trump's federal income tax returns in May, claiming that members of Congress had "no legitimate purpose" to review the statements.

The House Ways and Means Committee issued the subpoena of the President's tax returns to Mnuchin and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig last Friday, after Mnuchin rejected the original request of the committee. Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal said the committee was entitled to reports under Section 6103 (f) of the IRS Code, in order to monitor and determine whether the company is in compliance with the rules. IRS applied the laws.

Mnuchin argued that Congress did not have "legitimate legislative purpose" in requesting private tax information from the president, and in his memo Friday, the legal adviser's office agreed.

"Given the facts and circumstances, the Secretary of the Treasury reasonably and reasonably concluded that the Committee's interest in reviewing the audits of the Presidential statements by the Internal Revenue Service was pre-textual and that its true purpose was to make public the president's tax returns, which is not the case, a legitimate legislative objective, "said the office of the legal adviser in the memo.

Congressional Democrats argued that consulting Mr. Trump's tax returns had a legitimate legislative purpose, in that it would reveal the president's financial transactions and potential ethical issues. Neal threatened to sue the Treasury Department for refusing to respond to the subpoena.

However, even though members of Congress may face difficult battle to get Mr. Trump's federal tax returns, they might have more luck with his New York state tax returns. The state legislature of New York adopted a measure in May to allow the leaders of the US House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee or the Joint Committee on Taxation to access New York returns filed by elected representatives and appointed senior officials.

Paula Reid contributed to this report.