BREAKING: Trump Tax Return Fight Begins 6 Months Behind Schedule
The Revolving Door Project's Jeff Hauser Reacts to Ways & Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal
For Immediate Release Contact: Jeff Hauser, hauser@cepr.net
July 2, 2019
Trump Tax Return Fight Begins, Several Months Behind Schedule
The Revolving Door Project's Jeff Hauser Reacts to Ways & Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal finally seeking to effectuate the Committee’s previously delayed subpoena
“No confrontation was more heavily previewed in the 2018 Midterm Elections than the fight a Democratically controlled House of Representatives would undertake to expose one of Donald Trump’s (apparently) greatest shames, his tax returns. Yet a request to the IRS, which should have taken days to issue, took the House Ways & Means Committee 3 months to send.
Today, we are 90 days since Neal asked nicely for Trump’s tax returns. It has been 83 days since Mnuchin `missed the deadline’ to hand them over, 80 days since Neal asked nicely again, and 70 days since Mnuchin `missed’ Neal’s extended deadline. It has been 57 days since Mnuchin issued his `final’ denial of Neal’s request, 53 days since Neal issued a subpoena for the tax returns, and 46 days since Mnuchin rejected the subpoena.
This delay is a win for Trump, regardless of the eventual outcome in court. Trump has been gifted several months of delay in litigation that can never be recovered by the public that voted Democrats into control of the House of Representatives as a check on Trump’s corruption. That delay did nothing to strengthen the House’s already strong legal hand, but can and will be used by Trump as evidence that there is no constitutional urgency here that would warrant a court expediting this case.
Nevertheless, litigation need not take as long as some naysayers have suggested. Hopefully this belated lawsuit will be pursued with a vigor and sense of urgency that has heretofore been lacking from Congressional Democrats.”
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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Our first three months of work on the Ways & Means Committee generally and the tax return issue specifically: Oversight of Congressional Oversight: Assessing the House Ways and Means Committee
Our June 13th piece on how Pelosi & Neal are collaborating on slow-walking enforcement: Can Activists Trust Nancy Pelosi’s Instincts on Impeachment?
Our overview of Congressional Democratic oversight: House Democrats Are Failing to Investigate the White House