The House Ways and Means Committee is planning on requesting Trump’s tax returns in two weeks, Politico reported Tuesday.
“We’re almost ready to go,” Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) reportedly told the news outlet.
“The chairman will be ready in two weeks to send his letter,” the congressman added. “And I volunteered to deliver it.”
An obscure, Roaring Twenties-era law allows the chairmen of three Congressional committees to request the returns of any filer. House Ways and Means committee chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) is the only Democrat empowered to do so under the law, and he has faced mounting calls from committee Democrats and activists to make the request.
Neal reportedly ordered committee lawyers to begin preparing the requests last week, and asked the heads of the Oversight, Intelligence, Judiciary, and Financial Services Committees to draft their own rationale for requesting Trump’s returns.
The request will likely be sent to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. House Democrats expect Mnuchin to refuse the request, setting the stage for a court battle.
To that end, Democrats have taken care to establish a legislative purpose for requesting Trump’s returns that they can cite in any litigation that could arise. The oversight subcommittee of House Ways and Means held a hearing last month on a legislative proposal in the Democrats’ marquee H.R. 1 package that would force all presidential and vice presidential candidates to disclose ten years of their tax returns.
