A surprise development that could be the ammunition the House Ways and Means Committee needs to finally obtain Trumpâs tax returns.
A whistleblower recently made âcredible allegationsâ to the Ways and Means Committee of potentially wrongful interference with the IRSâ presidential audit process, lawyers for the House told a federal court Tuesday.
The disclosure was included in a motion by House Democrats asking Judge Carl Nichols to summarily order the Treasury Department to turn over President Donald Trumpâs tax returns to Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal (D-Mass.). Part of the Democratsâ argument in the case is that they need Trumpâs returns to review the effectiveness of the IRSâ routine audits of every president.
The motion included an Aug. 8 letter by Neal to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin saying that Ways and Means received an âunsolicited communicationâ on July 29 âfrom a Federal employee setting forth credible allegations of âevidence of possible misconductâ â specifically, potential âinappropriate efforts to influenceâ the mandatory audit program.â
He asked Mnuchin to provide documents and communications âof specified Treasury and IRS employeesâ regarding the matter.
Mnuchin, in an Aug. 13 response that was also included in the Democratsâ court filing Tuesday, said Treasury didnât have any pertinent records to provide and suggested Neal take his concerns to the IRSâ inspector general.
The allegations of interference in the audit process are a new twist in Nealâs effort to obtain six yearsâ worth of Trumpâs personal returns, along with six years of some of his business returns. In July, Neal filed a federal lawsuit to enforce a subpoena for the returns.
In Tuesdayâs filing, House Counsel Doug Letter asked for summary judgment in favor of all claims in Democratsâ complaint, saying âthere are no genuine issues of material fact.â The filing included documents that again lay out the Democratsâ arguments for obtaining Trumpâs returns, under a law that allows Neal to request them from Treasury.
âThe Committee needs the requested information to evaluate the integrity of the IRSâs existing program for auditing Presidentsâ tax returns â a need only heightened by the Committeeâs receipt of whistleblower allegations about improper influence in that program,â the House attorneys said in a document filed with the motion Tuesday.
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A Neal aide declined to comment on the whistleblower charge, but a footnote in Tuesdayâs filing said the committee is prepared to offer the court confidential material on the undue influence allegation.
The last sentence is a real teaser â I hope we soon learn more about how the IRS has allegedly been gaming its audits of Presidential tax returns. And to get to the bottom of this, we need the current Presidentâs tax returns (we already have the previous Presidentâs tax returns).
Side Note: There has been a lot of criticism about how slow Neal has been in filing this case and moving it ahead. (BTW, I agree with the critics.) His supporters say he needs to take his time and âdo it right.â But now Nealâs slow progress is being used as an argument by Trumpâs lawyers to slow down the process even more. Arrrrgh. I hope the judge is not buying it. And at the same time, I hope Neal picks up the pace. Hereâs the âreasoningâ from Trumpâs lawyers:
âAll told, it took the Committee 180 days to bring this suit (and still another 49 days after that before moving for summary judgment), with little to no explanation for its leisurely pace,â the attorneys said. âThe Committeeâs purported desire to consider legislation regarding the Presidential audit process does not require that the Court suddenly bring these proceedings to a gallop.â
P.S. Can someone please cross post this under House Investigations? Thanks. I tried to post it there, but I hit my âno-more-than-three-in-a-rowâ limit. 
