Politico has penned a new article explaining how House Democrats should go about getting Trump’s taxes, since all roads thus far have failed. They begin by explaining that Mnuchin was found not to have “violated department procedures when he refused to provide House lawmakers with Trump’s tax records” by Deputy Inspector General Richard K. Delmar. Then they explain how a long forgotten statute is the answer:
This unassuming statute, buried four paragraphs under the heading “Reports” in 31 U.S.C. § 331(d), requires the Treasury secretary to provide the House or Senate with any information they request. It reads: “The [Treasury] Secretary shall report to either House of Congress in person or in writing, as required, on matters referred to the Secretary by that House of Congress.” By law, therefore, the House could order Mnuchin to investigate and report (in person, no less) on the president’s taxes, and he would have to obey.
The statute has sweeping implications for our modern understanding of separation of powers law, and the authority of each chamber of Congress relative to the president. For one, the statute is constitutional. The Supreme Court has said that existing laws originally passed by Congress in 1789, the same year the Constitution went into effect, must be interpreted today as Congress interpreted them immediately after passage—that those laws are de facto constitutional unless specifically found otherwise. This statute, which has been used often throughout U.S. history, has always been followed by the executive branch and, accordingly, never been challenged in court.
The 1789 statute also refutes the Justice Department’s OLC memo. The memo, which contends Congress doesn’t have the authority to compel the executive branch to supply information, reasoned by analogy from a handful of modern Supreme Court decisions on separation of powers. But the “duty to report” provision predates those decisions by more than a century, calling into question not only the memo but also the assumptions underlying those Supreme Court opinions.
So Politico’s answer is that House Democrats should invoke this statute and command Mnuchin to turn over Trump’s taxes. Yeah, like that’s going to work. LOL!
Politico notes that there’s no guarantee, however if the statute is invoked they believe it’s a way to use Trump’s Supreme Court nominees against him:
Of course, none of this means that House Democrats are guaranteed to obtain Trump’s tax returns if they use this forgotten statute. Mnuchin may choose to violate the law and ignore the House’s request or produce a less-than-adequate “report” on Trump’s tax returns. And Trump’s Justice Department is unlikely to back down in the face of a new legal argument. The Justice Department is currently taking the far-fetched position that, even when armed with a valid statute, Congress can’t use the courts to enforce demands for information from the executive branch, leaving Congress essentially powerless against obstruction.
But if Mnuchin refuses to comply with 31 U.S.C. § 331(d), he will have a hard time finding legal ground to stand on. And if the case makes its way to the Supreme Court, where justices who call themselves “originalists” now hold sway, the court should rule in favor of Congress. Otherwise, the Supreme Court will be ignoring the will of the founders, the understanding of the Constitution shared by the first Congress and centuries of precedent.
Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Roberts must all agree to turn over Trump’s tax returns to Congress or they would be guilty of blasphemy against the founders! It looks like they’ve got Trump this time!
I’m no legal expert and won’t pretend to be. But the notion that this could be used to justify getting Trump’s taxes seems like quite a stretch. We’re talking about Trump’s own personal taxes, not something that inherently belongs to the executive branch.