House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard Neal (D-Mass.) has asked for six years of President Trump's personal and business tax returns by April 23, using a law that doesn't give Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin much wiggle room. On Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders if Trump will "tell the IRS not to release them?" "We'll have to see what happened on that front," Sanders said.
Sanders repeated the argument from Trump's lawyers and Mnuchin that Neal's stated policy purpose for seeking Trump's tax returns is insufficient or purely partisan, claiming "the only reason that the oversight committee has the ability to request someone's taxes are for the purpose of determining policy." (Whether Neal needs a policy purpose is a question that hasn't been answered by the courts, though the 1924 tax law in question was enacted in response to the Harding administration's Teapot Dome scandal and most legal experts agree Neal's purpose would pass the legal threshold in any case.)
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Wallace also asked Sanders how the White House is preparing for information in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report that "clearly is going to be damaging to the president" — "I don't think it is going to be damaging to the president," she said — and Sanders claimed Trump's repeated praise of WikiLeaks was clearly Trump "making a joke during the 2016 campaign," to which a skeptical Wallace replied: "It was a joke he made over and over again." Watch the entire interview below. Peter Weber
-
How will the new Repayment Assistance Plan for student loans work?the explainer The Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) will replace existing income-driven repayment plans
-
In the Spotlight Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been at odds with US forces
-
Music reviews: Ethel Cain, Amaarae, and The Black KeysFeature "Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You," "Black Star," and "No Rain, No Flowers"
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B dealSpeed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance mergerSpeed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profitsSpeed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new highSpeed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
-
Economists fear US inflation data less reliablespeed read The Labor Department is collecting less data for its consumer price index due to staffing shortages
