The Democrats aren’t giving up on their investigations of President Trump. With collusion a dead end, Democrats are now clamoring for Trump’s tax returns, apparently convinced that they will find evidence of a crime.
Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee requested Trump’s tax returns amid a flurry of subpoenas aimed at uncovering alleged conflicts of interest in Trump’s business and evidence of wrongdoing in the Robert Mueller’s report, which Democrats demanded in full.
Democrats say they want to see Trump’s tax returns to ensure that the IRS is enforcing the law fairly, with possible questions including whether Trump evaded payroll taxes by hiring illegal immigrants at one of his golf courses. The request set up an immediate partisan fight between Democrats and the White House.
Democrats clamor for Trump’s tax returns
Democratic Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) issued a request Wednesday to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig for six years of Trump’s tax returns, setting off a showdown between Trump and House Democrats. President Trump has maintained that he’s prevented by an ongoing audit from releasing his returns. He immediately said that he would not be “inclined” to release the returns “until such time as I’m not under audit.”
All presidents and vice presidents are placed under mandated audit, but Democrats want to know whether Trump’s businesses, including his golf courses, are part of that review by the IRS. Democrats think that Trump’s business returns contain evidence of illegality that Trump, and Republicans, are desperate to hide.
“Are they [the IRS] looking at his business returns? Are they looking at the golf courses, are they not?” a Democratic staffer on the committee told the Washington Examiner.
In particular, Democrats want to investigate whether Trump broke payroll tax law by reportedly hiring illegal immigrants to work at his Bedminster golf course. Democrats also want to investigate whether Trump abused a $39.1 million environmental tax break for his New Jersey golf course.
Presidents have long released their returns voluntarily, something Trump did not do during the 2016 campaign. Democrats are seeking tax returns for eight business entities including the Bedminster golf course.
Partisan showdown
Democrats are leveraging a law dating from the 1920s to request the returns, which they say they are seeking for legitimate oversight purposes. While Democrats do have legal authority to request the returns, that authority is not unlimited. They need to demonstrate that they have a legitimate purpose in asking for them.
Republicans say their colleagues are weaponizing tax law to pursue a partisan attack on the president. Ways and Means Ranking Member Kevin Brady (R-TX) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) warned that the Democrats’ patently political pursuit could set a “dangerous precedent.”
“Weaponizing our nation’s tax code by targeting political foes sets a dangerous precedent and weakens Americans’ privacy rights. As you know, by law all Americans have a fundamental right to the privacy of the personal information found in their tax returns,” Brady said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. “This particular request is an abuse of the tax-writing committees’ statutory authority, and violates the intent and safeguards of Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code as Congress intended.”
While Democrats were clamoring for Trump’s tax returns long before his exoneration of collusion by Robert Mueller, the end of Russiagate has left Democrats motivated to destroy the president.
While some are still insisting upon discredited collusion claims, or otherwise hyping allegations of a cover-up by Attorney General William Barr, alleged conflicts of interest involving Trump’s businesses have come into focus as a new line of attack. Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee also subpoenaed Mueller’s full report Wednesday.
“Show us the Mueller report, show us the tax returns, and we are not walking away just because you say no the first time around,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said.
President Trump is pushing back against the request, saying Thursday that “They’ll [Democrats] speak to my lawyers and they’ll speak to the attorney general.” On Friday, he told reporters he was confident that the law was “100 percent” on his side.
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