this memo. i can see why the secretary of the treasury decided not to follow this and took the advice of his own general counsel to say we are going to take a positive not comply with this until we can see why congress wants tax returns. shannon: final word to you, jason. it is politically motivated, secretary of treasury is correct. it s called 6103 material and the reason it is there is so that they won t politicize the use of tax returns which is precisely what democrats are trying to do. they are doing it for pure political reasons, there is no legitimate legislative purpose. shannon: thank you all, great to have you. the game of chicken between house democrats in the white house getting more tense. rank-and-file democrats want impeachment now. will they convince party leaders? hours away from the meeting aimed at resolving the party split. in the meantime richard goodstein and kaylee mcinerney
to impeachment than you were months ago. why is that? what s the difference for you? the president is using every tool he can to keep from complying with legitimate requests, subpoenas. the fact that he is willing to essentially cover up everything that he does not want anyone to know and will refuse to allow his own members of his administration testify before committees of congress with legitimate questions, denying subpoenas and, you know, as a member of the ways and means committee i m concerned about their willful ignorance of section 6103 of the tax code that says that the chairman of the ways and means committee can order a tax return to be delivered to him to support their deliberations of the committee and they re just simply not doing it. now, of course, we ve learned that there was a draft memo internal to the irs that stated very clearly what we ve been saying all along. it reinforces our concern. the president seems to be willing to direct agencies to
it s almost difficult to say when that moment will be. but when the president fails to comply with legitimate directives, in fact if they fail to comply with an order of the court, that would be a red line that i think he does not want to cross because then that would trigger something. even as these facts unfold, for example if we can get finally section 6103 of the tax code to be adhered to, and inform us as to whether or not he has tried to manipulate the irs to his advantage, that would be another red flag that would signal that we have to take some additional steps. he is also creating an opportunity or a circumstance, i should say, where just the effect of his unwillingness to comply with legitimate requests from congress for testimony or for documents, you know, he may be painting himself into a corner where we have no choice. we are getting there. we are getting there quickly, unfortunately for him.
he did address that i.r.s. memo saying he had a chance to look at it which was the request to do so saying he does not believe the memo contradicts his conclusion that congress needs a legitimate legislative purpose to see those tax returns saying the memo addresses a different issue. i want to get your thoughts as we learn more out of that hearing room. so it s referred to on capitol hill as 6103 material. that s the statute. and the statute was put into place so that the i.r.s. was not used as a political tool to grab people s tax returns and then embarrass them or do what they want to do politically and that s why the statute is there. the secretary is reading the statute right. there is no legitimate legislative purpose and therefore the secretary does not need to provide donald trump s personal tax returns, which aren t required by law, to be able to give it to the ways and means committee. it is so over the top for the
in jail, but i would think that that is not likely going to happen. nonetheless, holding someone in contempt is an option. still, doing a legal action on the tax law itself, 6103, which is the basis upon which chairman neil can ask for those tax returns, that is an important thing to recognize as inherent in the law. in fact, it s a that still been in place for 100 years and it s enacted in 1924. so we stand on solid legal ground with the subpoena as well as with the tax law in asking for trump s tax returns. i can t even believe we are in this state because for four decades, presidents have voluntarily revealed their tax returns. both democrats and republicans. why we have to go to this level