US President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (L) speaks during a tour of the H&K Equipment Company in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania on January 18, 2018.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
The House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday sued the Treasury Department and the IRS to get President Donald Trump’s tax returns, a spokesman for a committee member told CNBC.
The legal action shows the Democrat-led panel following through on its threat from months earlier, when Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and IRS chief Charles Rettig defied subpoenas to hand over six years of Trump’s personal and business returns. Mnuchin had argued that the committee had no “legitimate legislative purpose” to request the president’s federal tax returns.
The legal complaint in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., says that Mnuchin, Rettig and their departments “have now — for what the Committee believes is the first time ever — denied a Section 6103(f) request in order to shield…