“Until such time as I am not under audit, I will not be doing that, thank you,” President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images white house Trump on House getting his tax returns: ‘They’ll speak to my lawyers’

President Donald Trump dodged questions Thursday on whether he will release his tax returns, saying lawmakers need to talk to his lawyers.

“They’ll speak to my lawyers. They’ll speak to the attorney general,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. When pressed on whether he would direct the IRS to release them, he again said that “they’ll speak to my lawyers and speak to the attorney general.”


Rep. Richard Neal, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, demanded in a letter to IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig on Wednesday that six years of Trump’s personal tax returns, as well as some from his businesses, be handed over by April 10.

Neal is also preparing to issue a subpoena if the documents aren’t turned over.

The president previously said he would not release his tax returns because he is being audited, though such review does not prevent him from releasing those filings.

“Until such time as I am not under audit, I will not be doing that, thank you,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday.

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But David Bossie, a Trump confidant and adviser, said he would suggest the White House push to not release Trump’s taxes even if there’s a subpoena as part of what he calls an illegitimate investigation.

“It’s a hate-filled partisan request,” he said. “I wouldn’t give it to them.”

Bossie, who served as House Republicans’ lead investigator into the Clinton White House in the 1990s, predicts that Trump officials would face no serious legal consequences for ignoring requests.

Since Democrats took over the House in January, Trump officials have often refused to turn over documents as part of an unusually hostile response to congressional investigators that is a breaking from norms set by previous administrations of both parties, according to people who worked in the White House or Capitol Hill during the presidencies of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Their actions indicate they don’t plan to negotiate with Congress over their demands for information and witnesses the way Trump’s predecessors did.

Democrats had hoped they would quickly be in possession of troves of internal Trump administration documents, but it has become clear that a long and frustrating fight with Trump lawyers lies ahead, a fight that could end up in court. Those battles could take many months, possibly stretching well into 2020 as the president runs for reelection.

Trump’s allies think the president’s supporters will welcome the tough response to Democrats and that other voters may come to the conclusion that Democrats are overreaching in their oversight efforts.

Nearly every House committee has launched investigations into the Trump administration, on everything from the easing of sanctions on businesses tied to a Russian oligarch to the federal government’s lease with the Trump International Hotel in Washington.

House Democrats are likely to get documents, particularly on policy issues, from agencies and departments, and from people and entities not associated with the federal government, including Trump’s adult children and business associates, who have no protections.

Committees have the power to subpoena documents and witnesses and to hold officials in contempt if those subpoenas are ignored. Those actions could lead to the case landing in court and even a criminal referral to the U.S. attorney in Washington, though such a referral does not mean that charges will be filed.