Donald Trump, the pugnacious president from New York's outer boroughs, is facing what may be his fiercest, most personal fight yet with a scrappy, octogenarian Congressman from an outer-ring New Jersey city.

"I always say I'm from Paterson, New Jersey. I drank the water, its in my DNA,'' said Democrat William Pascrell Jr. in an interview Tuesday. "I went to Fordham University. The Jesuits didn't teach me to hide under the covers or hide under the desk."

Pascrell, as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, wants to know what Trump is hiding in his tax returns.

Many Democrats, including Pascrell, believe the tax returns could be the Rosetta Stone for Trump's seamy secret, financial history. Will it provide clues to possible financial ties to Russian oligarchs? What is the real extent of his holdings and did he puff up their value for tax advantage? Is he paying his fair share of taxes? Is he really the billionaire he claims to be?

Tantalizing questions, for sure, and, Pascrell and fellow Democrats have reason to hope that they'll get the long-awaited chance to see them. A 1920s-era law gives the Ways and Means Committee the power to request and inspect any person's tax returns, including the president's, in an executive committee session.

Some experts say the law leaves Trump little wiggle room. But then, again, this is the norm-busting Trump who ignores precedent, tradition and, often the rule of law.

And last week, Trump made it clear that he has no intention of handing over six years of tax returns, as House Democrats requested. A deadline set for Tuesday came and went with a defiant Trump snub.

"Mr. Trump thinks he's above the law. He thinks he's king,'' said Pascrell, a political street fighter who mastered the art of hurling verbal brickbats long before Trump entered politics. "This is a Democracy. Go to Russia. He'll be very comfortable there, I'm sure, from what I hear."

Trump's stonewalling on taxes is also part of a scorched-earth strategy to thwart a wide range of investigations initiated by House Democrats, probes into subjects ranging from questionable security clearances for Trump family members to a push on adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.

Trump's intransigence only deepened in the wake of special counsel Robert S. Mueller's 448-page report of Russian interference in the 2016 election. The report said the investigators found that the Trump campaign benefited from Russia's activities but did not do anything criminal with that aid.

The report also details 10 cases of attempts by Trump to obstruct the investigation, but the efforts failed when aides refused to follow his orders. Trump claimed the report fully exonerates him, but Democrats believe the report offers a road map for further investigation -- and possible impeachment proceedings.

And without missing a beat, the Democrats expanded their to-do list of investigations. House officials are expected to summon Mueller, Attorney General William Barr and, perhaps the report's most crucial witness, former White House counsel Donald F. McGahn, to testify.

"We have chosen checks and balances,'' said Pascrell, who is serving his 10th term. "Sorry, Mr. Trump, you have to put up with it."

But Trump's resistance is setting the stage for months of political trench warfare between Trump and Congress, replete with plenty of acrimony, tweetstorms and teams of lawyers shuttling between the White House and the Capitol negotiating some resolution.

For the short-term, Pascrell outlined a next-set of options now that the Trump administration rebuffed the tax return request.

The committee chairman, Richard E. Neal, D-Massachusetts, could make a third request to Steven Mnuchin, secretary of the Treasury Department, or they could subpoena the tax returns. It augurs a long political and constitutional wrangle through uncharted waters.

Yet, a long fight could provide political advantages for both sides.

For Trump, it allows him to paint himself as a martyr of the "radical left" witch hunt. That could help him rally his conservative base and maybe lure back some Republicans who joined the "blue wave" vote in the House midterms.

House Democrats say the investigations and fight to see the tax returns could help further sow disgust over Trump's chaotic presidency and help build a crescendo for change just in time for the 2020 election. They also see a chance their investigations could also further erode public support for Republicans who stuck by Trump despite the unease over his policies and erratic behavior.

The expanded list of Trump-related investigations could also bolster moderate Democrats led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who advocates a cautious, go-slow approach toward impeachment.

It is a caution borne out of history. Pelosi and Pascrell witnessed first hand the Republican party's rush to impeach Bill Clinton in 1998. The effort failed in the Senate and led to a backlash in the polls. Republicans lost seats in the Senate and Clinton's chief inquisitor, House Speaker Newt Gingrich, was routed from office. Clinton's approval rating soared.

A restive liberal wing in the House says the Mueller report has already armed them with ample evidence for impeachment and say they are obligated to exercise their constitutional duty regardless of the political consequences. But Pelosi and other moderate Democrats fear that a quick leap to impeachment -- without first building a case and wide, bipartisan support in the public -- could face the same backlash as the Gingrich-led Republicans.

"I don't think we should be jumping into impeachment procedures,'' Pascrell said. "We're going to get the facts. And maybe...after we see the shenanigans about what they are doing to protect the president, maybe we can start the procedure to impeachment. But if you are asking me today? It's not time yet."

For now, Pascrell will focus on Trump's tax returns, which Trump has refused to release claiming they are under audit by the IRS. His refusal breaks a 40-year tradition of sitting presidents who release their returns.

Pascrell began his tax return push in February 2017, a month after Trump was sworn in, by writing a letter to then Ways and Means chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas. Pascrell urged bi-partisan cooperation.

But Pascrell also had some strategic advice. Republicans should take steps to insulate themselves from the fallout if Trump's tax returns are eventually made public and contain scandalous details, he argued.

"This could get messy down the line,'' Pascrell said. "This is going to come out sooner or later. And somebody is going to ask, 'how come you weren't asking for it.?' And I don't think it is good enough just to say you were protecting the president."

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