Pascrell Calls for Expanded Investigation of Trump Tax Stonewall

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) reacted to a new report that a confidential Internal Revenue Service analysis concluded that the agency had to provide Donald Trump’s tax returns to Congress pursuant to Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal’s (D-MA-01) request under 26 U.S. Code § 6103(f).

“Steve Mnuchin’s performance this morning was typically embarrassing in its obfuscations, half-truths, and outright lies. But as we learned last night, the IRS’s own lawyers know the jig is up. Trump’s enablers should stop this cover-up and put all the cards on the table. Congress should see every memo, every legal opinion, and every analysis from executive departments. The American people deserve to see how Mnuchin and Barr are fracturing the law to protect Trump.

“We have entered a new stage in these last few days. Because of Trump’s unprecedented corruption, our constitutional balance is in crisis. But the opinion issued by Judge Mehta was as complete a repudiation of presidential obstruction of Congress as has ever been issued. The law is on the side of Congress and the rule of law must prevail.”

Rep. Pascrell has been Congress’s most vocal proponent of releasing President Trump’s tax returns in order to reveal any potential conflicts of interest. Since February 2017, Pascrell has led the call for the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means to invoke Section 6103 of the tax code to obtain Trump’s tax returns. Pascrell believes that exposing the tax returns to sunlight is critical to revealing any potential conflicts of interest, including those with Russian entities. In the 115th Congress, Republicans voted 18 times to block Democratic resolutions seeking the tax returns.

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