In the News

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Mass, re-upped his demand for President Donald Trump’s tax returns Saturday, telling IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig in a letter he has 10 days to turn over the records.

“Please know that, if you fail to comply, your failure will be interpreted as a denial of my request,” Neal wrote to Rettig three days after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the administration would miss Neal’s original April 10 deadline as he consulted with the Department of Justice.

Neal dismissed Mnuchin’s concerns, writing they “lack merit.”

In the two-page letter, Neal, who set an April 23 deadline, argued the IRS has an “unambiguous legal obligation" to turn over the president’s returns under section 6103 of the tax code, which states that the treasury secretary “shall furnish” a request from the congressional committees with tax oversight.

The next step would likely be a subpoena from Neal or a lawsuit, Politco and The Washington Post reported.

Trump’s personal attorney, William S. Consovoy, have argued Democrats’ request risks weaponizing the IRS for partisan political gain, with Consovoy calling Neal’s request a “gross abuse of power.”

Neal’s letter to Rettig comes a day after House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, said he would subpoena a decade’s worth of Trump’s financial records from an accounting firm linked to the president.