{"id":208884,"date":"2019-04-08T00:49:36","date_gmt":"2019-04-08T04:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=208884"},"modified":"2019-04-08T00:49:36","modified_gmt":"2019-04-08T04:49:36","slug":"chief-of-staff-says-dems-will-never-see-trump-tax-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/04\/08\/chief-of-staff-says-dems-will-never-see-trump-tax-returns\/","title":{"rendered":"Chief of staff says Dems will ‘never’ see Trump tax returns"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: Mulvaney speaking at a campaign event for Senator Rand Paul in Spartanburg, South Carolina in September 2015. (Photo By Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Democrats will \u201cnever\u201d see President Donald Trump’s tax returns, said White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Sunday, as a new front opened in the confrontation between the administration and Congress.<\/p>\n

Mulvaney accused Democrats of engaging in a \u201cpolitical stunt\u201d and wanting \u201cattention\u201d after the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Richard Neal, asked the IRS to provide six years of Trump’s personal tax returns and the returns for some of his businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is not going to happen and they know it,\u201d Mulvaney told \u201cFox News Sunday.\u201d Asked whether he believe Democrats would ever view the president’s returns, Mulvaney replied: \u201cOh no, never. Nor should they.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, Massachusetts Democrat Neal, one of only three congressional officials authorized to request tax returns, requested Trump’s personal and business returns in a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig. He asked for returns covering 2013 through 2018. He also asked for the documents in seven days, setting an April 10 deadline.<\/p>\n

An obscure 1924 statute includes no exceptions to Neal’s authority to ask the Treasury Department for returns and says the department \u201cshall furnish\u201d them when requested. It does require that the review of an individual’s return be conducted by members of Congress in \u201cclosed executive session\u201d if the returns are provided without the taxpayer’s consent.<\/p>\n

Still, Mulvaney claimed the law provides for lawmakers to review individual tax returns but \u201cpolitical hit job is not one of those reasons.\u201d His comments echoed those made by Trump’s lawyers who argued the Democratic request \u201cwould set a dangerous precedent\u201d if granted.<\/p>\n

Trump broke with precedent when he chose not to release any tax returns as a presidential candidate. Mulvaney tried to cast the issue of the president’s taxes as old news, saying it was \u201calready litigated during the election\u201d and the American people \u201celected him anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump has said he won’t release the information because he is under audit, something he reiterated again Friday while visiting the U.S-Mexico border.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m under audit. When you’re under audit you don’t do it,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

IRS officials have said taxpayers under audit are free to release their returns. Trump claimed at a news conference following his election in November 2018 that the filings are too complex for people to understand.<\/p>\n

William Consovoy, whose firm was retained by Trump to represent him on the matter, said in a letter Friday to the Department of Treasury’s general counsel that the tax code zealously guards taxpayer privacy. He said requests for tax returns \u201cmust have a legitimate legislative purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neal has said he made the request to review the IRS policy of auditing the tax returns of all sitting presidents and vice-presidents, saying, \u201clittle is known about the effectiveness of this program.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOn behalf of the American people, the Ways and Means Committee must determine if that policy is being followed, and if so, whether these audits are conducted fully and appropriately,\u201d Neal said when unveiling his request for Trump’s returns.<\/p>\n

Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, the GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee who has been an occasional critic of Trump’s, called Democrats’ actions \u201cmoronic.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told NBC’s \u201cMeet the Press\u201d that he believes Trump should release his tax returns, but by demanding them, \u201cI think the Democrats are just playing along his handbook.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Democrats will \u201cnever\u201d see President Donald Trump’s tax returns, said White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":208885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-zeke-miller","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":208886,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208884\/revisions\/208886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}