Trump's Treasury Secretary has made various public arguments about why the returns should not be submitted and also brought the Justice Department into a review of the demand. All of this ignores the mandatory nature of the law, which does not allow for discretionary review of the request by the administration.
If the IRS still does not supply the returns by April 23, the Committee may then subpoena them and/or proceed to federal court to see a judicial order compelling the IRS to comply. If the IRS Commissioner then ignored that order, the court could find him in contempt and fine him or compel his incarceration. And the President cannot pardon someone out of a contempt finding as that's not a criminal conviction.
The White House is moving toward a constitutional crisis on this. That crisis will come if a court orders the IRS to provide the returns and the latter refuses to do so upon orders from the White House. If we reach that point, what will Republicans on Capitol Hill do? Blocking release is a clear impeachable offense.
Will Republicans rise to defend the Constitution or will they ignore the Constitution to defend the Trump Administration? America moved toward a similar impasse during the Nixon years when the White House refused to turn over the so-called Watergate Tapes, but the crisis was averted when the President adhered to a federal court's order, supplied the "smoking gun" tapes, and then Nixon resigned.
For all of Nixon's faults, he has always been praised for putting the Constitution and the nation before his own self interests. I sincerely worry that Trump would never rise in a similar situation and put the country before his own selfish interests.
Undoubtedly this matter will be covered more extensively as the calendar moves toward April 23 if the IRS has not yet complied. And as always we must ask when considering this issue -- why is Trump so determined to hide his taxes, particularly considering he first promised to release them nearly four years ago?
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