Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Saturday implied House Democrats have tried to “weaponize” the IRS against President Donald Trump by requesting his and several of his business’ tax returns.
“[T]he implication of this is way beyond in my mind a congressional oversight issue, and a president issue,” Mnuchin said on the sidelines of the spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, as quoted by Reuters. “I feel a responsibility that we get this right and that the IRS does not become weaponized like it was under the Nixon administration.”
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) first requested the tax returns from IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig on April 3, giving Rettig a week to respond. On April 10, Mnuchin — rather than Rettig — said the returns were still unavailable.
On Saturday, Neal wrote to Rettig again, dismissing the concerns outlined by Mnuchin, without naming him, and asserting that responding to the request was a simple matter of following the law. He set a new deadline of April 23 for the returns.
