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WASHINGTON – The Justice Department on Friday approved Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's decision to challenge a Congressional demand for President Trump's tax returns on the grounds that it did not have "legitimate legislative purpose" .
The ministry issued a 33-page memorandum on Thursday as Democrats in the House were preparing a lawsuit as the next step in their efforts to gain access to Trump's returns. Mr. Mnuchin challenged the requests made in April and May by the House Ways and Means Committee and refused to comply with a subpoena, setting up a legal battle between the two branches of government.
Democrats in the House are trying to get Mr. Trump's personal and corporate income tax returns for six years by using an obscure provision in the tax code that allows Congressional contribution drafting committees to obtain tax returns. any taxpayer.
The memo, written by Steven A. Engel, head of the Legal Advisory Office, indicated that the Democratic Party of the House, led by Massachusetts Representative Richard E. Neal, had made this request for political ends for the purpose. to publish Mr. Trump's tax returns. . This cast doubt on the formal justification used by the committee for this claim, which, according to the Democrats, was intended to examine how the Internal Revenue Service verifies presidential income tax returns.
"The real goal was to make the president's income tax returns public," Engel wrote.
He detailed the public comments of Mr. Neal and President Nancy Pelosi on their willingness to disclose Mr. Trump's tax information. He also argued that the search for returns would not seem to fit the purpose stated by the committee to scrutinize the presidential audit process.
Claiming that Congress had exceeded its constitutional powers with the request, the Department of Justice concluded that Mr. Mnuchin was following the law by refusing to release the reports.
"Congress can not use its power of summons to impose an unconstitutional request for information," Engel wrote.
Mr. Neal's office did not immediately comment on the memo.
Mr. Engel's argument that the Congress had no legitimate legislative purpose in Mr. Trump's search for tax returns was closely related to the arguments made by Mr. Trump's legal team in the context of prosecution of subpoenas to financial companies such as Mazars USA for its financial data.
Last month, two Federal District Court judges rejected this argument, refusing to block Congressional summonses to such companies. One of them wrote that it was because Congress had put forward a valid argument to justify its request for legislative purposes and that it was "not within the purview of whether the actions of the committee are really motivated by political considerations ". Mr. Trump is appealing decisions.
House Democrats wondered how to respond to the Trump administration's strategy of delaying their surveillance efforts. Mr. Neal said that he was preparing to file a complaint soon.
Mr. Mnuchin had spoken with the Department of Justice when he rejected Mr. Neal's initial application, and he indicated that a memo would be issued to reiterate his instructions.
The Treasury Secretary is one of Trump's most loyal collaborators, and the dispute over the president's tax returns has put him in a difficult position to serve as a guardian of his boss's financial information. Mnuchin accused the Democrats of trying to "personalize" the tax administration and warned that by providing them with Trump's statements, they could come back to haunt the Democrats if the Republicans tried to unblock their tax returns.
Mr. Trump broke with decades of tradition as a presidential candidate when he decided not to publish his tax returns, claiming that they were under audit.
No rules prevent taxpayers from making their statement public during an audit.
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