desmond got there, before he was installed in february at president trump s personal insistence, turns out the previous chief counsel at the irs had put down in black and white, had put down in a legal memo the bad news for the trump white house or for any white house seeking to defy or wriggle out of the legal requirement to hand over a president s tax returns. quote, a confidential irs legal memo says that tax returns must be given to congress unless the president takes the rare step of asserting executive privilege, according to a copy of the memo obtained by the washington post. the memo contradicts the trump administration s justification for denying lawmakers request for president trump s tax returns. trump has refused to turn over his tax returns but has not invoked executive privilege. treasury secretary steven mnuchin has instead denied the returns by arguing there s no legislative purpose for denying them. but according to the irs memo
well, the irs s own legal analysis of this law and their responsibilities under the law say it doesn t matter why congress wants the tax returns. they don t even have to state any reason at all. you ve just got to hand it over. that s what the law says. now, the one theoretical silver lining here for president trump trying to block his tax returns from being handed over is this. according to the washington post tonight, this memo says that the only basis that the agencies could refuse to comply with the committee s subpoena would be to invoke the doctrine of executive privilege. now, you can just imagine the trump administration being like okay, okay, we ll assert executive privilege here, right? everything s executive privilege. just say that about everything. will that get us out of jail here? but even in this irs legal memo itself according to the washington post this memo says that this law which requires them to hand over the tax returns might be read to preclude a claim of e
who would you expect would need to be fined or confined in your words there in order to compel respect for this subpoena? well, the subpoena is directed to the irs commissioner who you ve mentioned has extensive experience on this matter. but secretary mnuchin has never let him answer the question. he responds with all the answers. i think that both of them could be subject to fines or confinement. i think, you know, there are so many people out there from mcgahn to barr and others who are refusing to disclose and respond to the congress, it s probably a matter of selecting one of them and moving forward to show how this power of inherent contempt could work. but here we are, you know, approaching memorial day, june is approaching. and this congress has not filed any action concerning any of these matters. and i think we ve got to take
yeah, you might try to invoke executive privilege here, but you can t invoke executive privilege to deny a subpoena. so this is new. according to the irs s own legal reasoning the trump administration must hand over trump s tax returns to congressman richard neal of massachusetts. they must. they can try to assert executive privilege to block it, but good luck. that s not going to work either. the law might even block that. basically, you ve got to do it. it s mandatory. says the irs. no wonder the president wanted to install a new chief lawyer at the irs who might look at these matters differently. i mean, there is a fist to brick wall conflict right now on everything. over these past 60 days since mueller finished his investigation, turned in his report, fist to brick wall. as the trump administration and the trump white house try to block investigators and try to
he knows the law is a clear and simple thing here, he just has to press that point until some court compels the trump administration to follow the law. that s how he s pursuing it. how do you try to win this fight if you re the other side, if you re the trump white house and you will do anything to stop the president s tax returns from being released, law or no law? well, that is what we re now seeing reported out tonight. as you know, in the two-plus years that he s been in office president trump has not been the most diligent chief executive when it comes to actually hiring people to important jobs in the federal government. right? when it comes to actually filling out senior jobs in the administration. he hasn t bothered, you know, to make sure all the jobs are filled. look at the cabinet right now. it s like half acting secretaries or something. he doesn t care. but he has taken particular care to install his own handpicked leadership at the top of the irs. and incidentally at the