Trump lawyer says the IRS must not hand over his tax returns

A lawyer for President Trump is hitting back against House Democrats' request for his tax returns, saying the IRS must not hand them over.

Attorney William Consovoy in a letter to the Treasury Department on Friday argued that House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) "cannot legally request," and the IRS "cannot legally divulge," Trump's private tax information, per NBC's Hallie Jackson.

This comes after Neal formally requested six years of Trump's tax returns, citing a part of the U.S. tax code which states that the committee can request anyone's tax returns and the Treasury secretary "shall furnish" them, per The Wall Street Journal.

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Consovoy argues, however, that Democrats have no "legitimate committee purpose" for this request. Even if they did, he suggests it wouldn't matter because Neal has made clear he is only interested in the tax returns to "damage [Trump] politically." Making a similar argument as Trump has already voiced, Consovoy additionally writes that the request is "inappropriate" since Trump's taxes are under "ongoing IRS examination."

Consovoy ultimately says that if the IRS "acquiesces to Chairman Neal's request, it would set a dangerous precedent" and would be a "gross abuse of power," and he urges the Treasury Department to wait for a legal opinion from the Department of Justice.

Neal had said when requesting Trump's taxes that his committee has "a responsibility to conduct oversight of our voluntary federal tax system and determine how Americans — including those elected to our highest office — are complying with those laws," per CBS News.

As this legal battle over Trump's taxes continues, CNN reported on Friday that Trump is prepared for it to go to the Supreme Court, with an administration official saying, "This is a hill and people would be willing to die on it."