Mnuchin says it’s illegal for him to turn over Trump’s tax returns, despite IRS memo

Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said it would be “unlawful” to give President Trump’s tax returns to Congress and asserted that a confidential IRS draft memo revealed on Tuesday didn’t contradict him.

“If I had turned them over, I would have been violating the law,” Mnuchin told the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday.

The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Richard Neal (D-Mass.), has demanded six years of Trump’s personal and business returns under a law giving him the authority him to make such requests. The 10-page IRS memo, first reported by the Washington Post, concluded that the Treasury Department had no choice but to turn over the documents, unless Trump wanted to assert executive privilege.

Mnuchin said he had no idea who wrote the confidential memo and was not aware of its existence until reporters from the Post made inquiries about it.

Mnuchin said that, in refusing to hand over the returns, he relied on advice from the Justice Department, which told him that Neal’s request overstepped Congress’ constitutional powers to investigate the president. He said the IRS memo was in draft form and hadn’t been distributed to senior Treasury Department leaders.

“There’s no smoking gun here,” Mnuchin said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.