WASHINGTON — Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. confronted Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin at a congressional hearing Tuesday, accusing him of breaking the law by refusing to release President Donald Trump’s tax returns as requested.
Pascrell, who has led the so-far unsuccessful effort to get Trump to release his returns like his predecessors have done for four decades, said the law was clear.
Mnuchin has refused to release the returns, despite a 1924 law giving the House Ways and Means Committee chair the right to obtain them upon request.
The committee chairman, Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., sought six years of Trump’s personal and business returns in April, saying he wanted to examine how the Internal Revenue Service ensured that the president complied with the tax laws.
The House Ways and Means Committee sued to get the returns after Mnuchin refused to honor a subpoena. The treasury secretary, who oversees the Internal Revenue Service, rejected the demand because it lacked a “legitimate legislative purpose,” and the Justice Department backed him up.
“By refusing to turn over Donald Trump’s personal and business tax returns to this committee, I think you’re breaking the law,” Pascrell, D-9th Dist., told Mnuchin at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing.
“It says, ‘shall,’ it doesn’t say ‘might,’” Pascrell said. “The only thing you suffer is smug rhetoric and staggering lies.”
“I find it offensive that you’re telling me that I’m breaking the law and staggering lies,” Mnuchin shot back. “That’s your interpretation of the law. I’m relying on legal counsel on what is our interpretation of the law. In all due respect, I am not breaking the law. You have a different interpretation. You’re not a judge.”
Pascrell said Mnuchin didn’t feel that way when Senate Republicans recently demanded the tax returns of Hunter Biden, former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, after they refused to call witnesses in Trump’s impeachment trial and acquitted him with only one GOP dissenter.
“When two Republican senators asked you for the private financial information of Joe Biden’s family, your department practically tripped over themselves to provide it,” Pascrell said. “You sent it over to them so fast I wonder if you stuffed it in a Federal Express envelope.”
Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.
Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips
Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.com’s newsletters.
Credit: Source link