House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal will decide on Thursday whether to skip a subpoena and go through the courts to get the president’s tax returns. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo congress Dems to decide Thursday whether to go to court for Trump's taxes

House Democrats are expected to decide on Thursday whether to go straight to court to obtain President Donald Trump’s tax returns, a move that would escalate their ongoing war with the president over his most sensitive financial documents.

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) said he plans to huddle with House lawyers on Thursday and will make the final decision then. He and other senior Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have already raised the prospect of skipping a subpoena and going directly to court after being repeatedly rebuffed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.


Democrats are further emboldened to go through the courts to get the president’s tax returns after Trump took the extraordinary step Wednesday of invoking executive privilege to block their access to the unredacted Mueller report, according to lawmakers and aides.

“I believe Mr. Neal does not need a subpoena to go to court,” Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the No. 2 House Democrat, said Wednesday.

Hoyer added that Trump’s refusal to reveal his returns — a common practice among presidential candidates since the 1970s — is just one part of a “blanket coverup” by the administration to halt any and all efforts by Democrats to investigate the president.

“There is a big picture here,” Hoyer added. “The picture of perhaps the greatest coverup of any president in American history — just a blanket ‘we’re not giving you information.’ [White House Chief of Staff Mick] Mulvaney saying ‘you’ll never get our tax returns.’ We think he’s wrong on that.”

Neal talked with Mnuchin on the phone Tuesday, according to two Democratic sources with knowledge of the call. One described it as “a courtesy” on the tax returns issue.

Democrats’ effort to obtain the president’s tax returns is just one front of a multi-faceted battle with the administration over investigations that have ramped up dramatically in recent weeks after Trump ordered his administration not to cooperate. The House Judiciary Committee will vote Wednesday on whether to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt over his refusal to turn over the unredacted Mueller report and underlying evidence.

Democrats have several options that they can pursue to force Trump to provide his tax returns, including interim steps like issuing a subpoena. But several high-ranking Democrats said they think a subpoena is a waste of time given Trump’s effort to stonewall all House investigations.

When asked about bringing a lawsuit against Mnuchin to obtain the returns, Neal said Wednesday: “We’ll know that by tomorrow.”

“We’re going to meet with House counsel,” he added.

Pelosi (D-Calif.) raised the court route earlier Wednesday during an event with the Washington Post.

“There’s several options,” Pelosi said when asked about holding Mnuchin in contempt or even arresting him. “One of them is to go directly to court.”

The House Oversight Committee has already issued subpoenas to financial institutions to try to obtain some of Trump’s other financial documents. But Trump retaliated, suing banks and an accounting firm last week to prevent them from supplying Congress with the president’s financial records.

Mnuchin has steadfastly refused to provide Trump’s tax returns to Neal since he first issued his request April 3 under legal authority belonging to the heads of Congress’s two tax committees, dating to 1924.

Neal has tied the request to congressional oversight authority, but Mnuchin has argued that Democrats don’t have a “legitimate” reason in seeking the president’s tax returns.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the No. 5 House leader, said senior Democrats are still weighing their options when it comes to Trump’s tax returns but expects them to decide quickly after the Barr contempt vote.

“The so-called attorney general is not above the law. The treasury secretary is not above the law,” Jeffries said Wednesday.

“We are going to proceed consistent with our constitutional responsibilities. But step one today relates to the Judiciary Committee proceeding on contempt," he said.

Neal said the latest New York Times story on Trump tax returns from 1985 to 1994, which showed Trump piled up almost $1.2 billion in losses over a decade to help offset his income taxes, helps make Democrats’ case. Neal, however made clear he’s not seeking tax returns this old.

“I think it would pique some interest in the purpose of how the IRS does their auditing, but the request we made is much more tailored and much more narrow,” Neal said. “You’d want to know how the IRS came to their conclusions, about what was a net operating loss, for example.”

There’s no question Trump lost money, said Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), a Ways and Means member. Instead the report raises a different question, he said — whether Trump truthfully reported his information to the IRS.

“I think he’s got two financial books — one of the IRS and one for loan officers,” Kind said. “That’s probably why he inflated his losses for IRS purposes but then if you take a look at his financial documents for loan purposes, I think you’re going to see a completely different set of figures.

John Bresnahan contributed to this story.