Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, received the Treasury memo after blocking the president’s nominees to the department because it was not answering his questions about the fight over the president’s tax returns. 

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.) has demanded Trump’s returns under Section 6103(f) of the tax code, which states that the treasury secretary “shall furnish” tax returns requested by certain congressional bodies. 

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“We are not aware of whether a previous Treasury Secretary has directly responded to a section 6103(f) request before,” states the four-page memo, written by Justin W. Sok, senior adviser in the Treasury Department’s Office of Legislative Affairs. 

But Treasury’s memo also argues that the administration is also unaware of any other requests for tax records that elicited strong objections from the chair of the Finance Committee, a position held by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa.),  or “presented such serious constitutional questions” as the one by House Democrats. 

The memo may give ammunition to Democrats who have contended that Mnuchin has gone to extraordinary lengths to shield Trump’s personal financial records. 

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It also says the Trump administration cannot cite a prior instance in which the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel weighed in on a congressional request for private tax returns, although in at least one instance the OLC has given advice on congressional access to tax returns related to a subcommittee request.  OLC provided an opinion to Mnuchin that has formed the basis for his denial of the records. 

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In a statement, Wyden said the letter “confirms that the Treasury Department has diverged from standard procedures in this case,” arguing that it reveals the “unprecedented process” by which the requests for Trump’s returns have been denied.  Wyden said he will now allow the president’s nominations to the department to proceed through the Senate. 

House Democrats filed a lawsuit earlier in federal court seeking access to Trump’s tax returns, accusing the administration of an “extraordinary attack” on Congress in preventing the disclosure of his records. 

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Trump refused to release his tax returns during the 2016 presidential campaign in a break with decades of precedent.  He has told advisers that he is willing to take the fight to the Supreme Court.  He has publicly argued that the tax returns were an issue in the 2016 election but that they should no longer be of concern because he won. 

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Democrats have cited both the law and an internal IRS memo that says Congress must be given the returns unless the president invokes executive privilege, which he has not. 

But in its June memo, the Treasury Department argues that the Democrats’ request for Trump’s returns are unlike any other prior request. 

“The vast majority of disclosures to congressional committees under section 6103(f) consist of statistical studies, compilations, and other data products . . .  provided for statistical purposes,” the Treasury memo states. “ The requests for this information do not identify specific taxpayers.” 

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Steve Rosenthal, a legal expert at the Tax Policy Center, said the memo “confirms there has been a special process for reviewing requests related to President Trump.”