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President Trump, center right, talks to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in the foreground on the left at the White House (Bill O 'Leary / The Washington Post)
A lawyer for President Trump told the Treasury Department on Friday that he was not to hand over the president's tax returns until he received a legal opinion from the Justice Department, calling on the Treasury to deny the requests. Democrats for six years.
Attorney William S. Consovoy challenged the request of Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, as a "flagrant abuse of power", arguing that it was likely that he would be in danger. encroach on taxpayers ".
The Consovoy letter is one of the first steps in what should be a long legal battle to determine who has the power to release Trump's tax returns.
On Wednesday, Neal officially asked the Internal Revenue Service, which is part of the Treasury Department, to return six years of personal and professional income tax returns from Trump.
A 1924 law cited by Neal states that the Secretary of the Treasury "must provide. . . any declaration or reporting information specified "in a request by the person in charge of the drafting committees of the statements of the House or Senate.
For months, Trump has said he will resist any attempt to force him to reverse his taxes. And the Friday letter from Consovoy indicates that the IRS should wait for a "formal legal opinion" from the Office of the Legal Counsel of the Department of Justice before disclosing the statements.
His lawyer's letter to Treasury General Brent J. McIntosh echoes the arguments put forward for months by congressional Republicans.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said he would consult departmental lawyers before making a decision on a request for return of statements. The fight should be settled by the courts.
"The Tax Code zealously protects the privacy of taxpayers," says Consovoy in his letter. "… It would be a flagrant abuse of power for the majority party to use tax returns as a weapon to attack, harass and intimidate their political opponents."
The White House has decided to block the publication of the president's tax returns, sources of significant speculation since Trump refused to publish them as a candidate for the 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said he would give "nothing" to congressional Democrats, saying the opposition party was simply trying to embarrass the president. Neal said he wants to monitor and debate legislative proposals on how federal tax laws apply to a US president.
"They will be in court for two or three years for these taxes. It's pure harassment, "Giuliani said in an interview. "They want their tax returns to be able to find something even if nothing is there."
Tim O'Brien, a financial reporter who saw Trump's tax returns but is on the order of not disclosing details, said his main concerns were what kind of income he would be getting from what could have been its philanthropic activities and whether it was compromised or not to some countries.
"It's something he's going to be fighting hard for." This opens a vein, "said O'Brien, who considered tax returns as part of a lawsuit. "He is the most confrontational president of the modern era, and tax returns are both emblematic of this and a potential roadmap of what his conflicts might look like."
O'Brien said Trump was against Trump's opposition every time he tried to find out what the real estate mogul was really worth.
"The first feedback we received from them was so much redacted that it looked like a crossword game," O'Brien said. "Our lawyers have had to fight hard for them. He really did not want to go. "
Trump has again recently claimed that he could not disclose his tax returns as they were subject to audit, although many independent experts said that this did not prevent him from doing so. not to release taxes.
Some critics have rejected the claim that the Treasury had to wait for the Department of Justice.
"It's a paralyzing tactic, which is the key to all of this," said Steve Rosenthal, tax policy expert at the Tax Policy Center, a non-partisan think tank. "The strategy here is to delay this beyond elections."
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