Trump Lawyers Up to Fight the Release of His Tax Returns

The president is digging in after a congressional demand seeking the records.

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Donald Trump has hired a new set of lawyers specifically to fight Democratic attempts to wrest his tax returns out of the hands of the Internal Revenue Service—an escalation of his long-standing refusal to reveal much detail about his personal finances.

While top federal officials, including the president, are required to annually release snapshots of their personal finances—their assets and liabilities—the disclosures shed little light on how much money a president makes, and how much tax he pays. For decades, presidents and top presidential candidates have voluntarily released at least some of their recent tax returns, but that was done out of a tradition of transparency—it’s no requirement to run for office. In 2016, Trump adamantly refused to release his returns, claiming he couldn’t because they were under audit. But with the Democrats seizing control of the House of Representatives, a path opened for Congress to legally acquire Trump’s tax information.

In 1924, following the Teapot Dome corruption scandal that rocked the Warren Harding administration, a law was created that allowed the Congressional tax committees to obtain copies of anyone’s tax returns. The scope of the law has changed over the years, but it’s still very much in place—if one of the committees asks for someone’s tax returns, the Treasury Secretary is obligated to order the IRS to turn it over. That doesn’t necessarily mean the returns will be made public, but, tax historians say, that at least in theory, there’s little the administration can do to avoid such a request.

This past week, the Democratic chairman of the House Ways and Means committee, Rep. Richard Neal, made a long-anticipated official request to the IRS asking for Trump’s tax returns. The administration has not officially responded, but Republicans and Trump himself have all complained about the request, calling it politically motivated. On Friday, William Conosvoy, an attorney recently hired personally by Trump, sent a letter to Treasury urging the agency to not comply with Democrat’s request. 

“The requests for his private tax information are not consistent with governing law, do not advance any proper legislative purpose, and threaten to interfere with ordinary conduct of audits,” Conosvoy wrote. “We are confident that this misguided attempt to politicize the administration of the tax laws will not succeed.”

After the 2018 elections that gave control of Congress to the Democrats, Joseph Thorndike, a tax historian, predicted to Mother Jones that Trump would try to block the release of his tax returns to Congress by arguing that they want them for political reasons or to smear him personally. But, Thorndike told Mother Jones, it probably wouldn’t be difficult to prove that Congress has some legitimate oversight purpose for wanting to see the returns. 

“Presumably, [Trump will] argue this is being done out of personal animus, and not in connection with legitimate legislative responsibility,” Thorndike said. “What it really comes down to is how high a bar that is. But based on what’s in the public record already, it seems like it will not be very hard for one of the committees to establish they have good reason to take a look.”

Thorndike pointed to last year’s New York Times investigation into the Trump family’s handling of the estate of the president’s father—which concluded that members of the Trump family may have been committed tax fraud in an effort to avoid inheritance taxes. That’s probably enough, Thorndike said.

In his request, Neal did not cite the Times investigation, but instead structured his letter as seeking more information on how the IRS audits presidents. 

Thorndike and other tax legal experts say the ensuing court battle to settle the question could take years to play out—a scenario the administration seems happy with.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate