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Justice releases legal opinion backing Treasury's refusal to release Trump tax returns
[The Hill] The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday released a legal opinion backing up the Treasury Department's decision to reject a request by congressional Democrats for six years of President Trump's tax returns."While the Executive Branch should accord due deference and respect to congressional requests, Treasury was not obliged to accept the Committee’s stated purpose without question, and based on all the facts and circumstances, we agreed that the Committee lacked a legitimate legislative purpose for its request," Steven Engel, an assistant attorney general in DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel, said in the 33-page opinion. The opinion comes after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin last month rejected a subpoena from House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) demanding Trump's personal and business tax returns from 2013 through 2018. When Mnuchin rejected Neal's request, he said he did so upon the advice of DOJ, and that the Justice Department would publish a legal opinion with its advice. Both Mnuchin and Neal have said they expect the tax return issue to end up in the courts. Posted by: Besoeker 2019-06-15 |
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