NY Times: Steven Mnuchin Refuses To Release Trump’s Tax Returns To Congress

New York Times, Steven Mnuchin Refuses to Release Trump’s Tax Returns to Congress:

The Treasury Department said on Monday that it would not release President Trump’s tax returns to Congress, defying a request from House Democrats and setting up a legal battle likely to be resolved by the Supreme Court.

Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, wrote in a letter to Representative Richard E. Neal, Democrat of Massachusetts and the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, that Mr. Neal’s request for the tax returns “lacks a legitimate legislative purpose” and that he was not authorized to disclose them. The decision came after weeks of delays as Mr. Mnuchin said that his department and the Justice Department needed to study the provision of the tax code that Democrats were using to seek six years’ worth of the president’s personal and business tax returns.

• Bloomberg, Mnuchin Rejects House Democrats’ Demand for Trump’s Tax Returns
• New York Times editorial, Sorry, Steve Mnuchin. Congress Has a Right to See Trump’s Tax Returns.
• PBS News Hour:  Why the IRS Is Legally Required to Give Congress Trump’s Tax Returns, But Probably Won’t, by Philip Hackney (Pittsburgh) 
• The Root, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Is Willing to Eat Trump's Tax Returns to Keep Democrats From Seeing Them
• Vanity Fair, Will Steven Mnuchin Go to Prison For Trump's Tax Returns?
• Washington Post, Mnuchin Rejects Democrats’ Demand to Hand Over Trump’s Tax Returns, All But Ensuring Legal Battle