Sen. Ron Wyden said the Treasury Department's response to congressional requests for the president's tax returns was “unresponsive and wholly unacceptable.” | AP Photo/Cliff Owen finance & tax Wyden threatens to hold nominees over Trump tax return defiance

Sen. Ron Wyden threatened on Thursday to put a hold on Treasury Department nominees unless the administration offers fuller answers about congressional efforts to obtain President Donald Trump’s tax returns.

Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, had pressed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a letter this month about the administration’s handling of House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal’s request for Trump’s returns. He said Thursday that the department’s response — which came not from Mnuchin, but from Justin Sok of Treasury’s legislative affairs office — was “unresponsive and wholly unacceptable.”


“If the Treasury Department refuses to answer our questions, I am prepared to again place a hold on department nominees as I did previously when routine requests for information went unanswered,” the Oregon Democrat added. “Congress needs to take action to force the administration to comply with oversight.”

Wyden had already said last week that Brent McIntosh, Treasury’s general counsel and Trump’s nominee to be Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, “needs to be prepared to thoroughly answer” questions about his role in the department’s refusal to comply with Neal’s request and a subsequent subpoena if he wanted the position.

Several other Treasury nominees could face a hold: Brian McGuire for assistant secretary for legislative affairs, Michael Faulkender for assistant secretary for economic policy, Brian Callanan for general counsel and Geoffrey William Seiji Okamoto for deputy undersecretary.

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In his letter to Mnuchin this month, Wyden asked how often tax committees had sought tax return information this century and how frequently that request has been handled by the Treasury secretary instead of the IRS commissioner.

Sok’s response maintained that Neal’s request was “categorically different” than previous committee requests for “statistical data to inform the drafting of tax legislation,” similar to the arguments that Mnuchin has made in public. Mnuchin repeatedly has said that Neal’s stated reason for requesting Trump’s returns — to conduct fuller oversight of the IRS’ capabilities in its routine auditing of presidents — is a cover and that Democrats are merely seeking ways to embarrass the president.

Wyden placed holds on Treasury nominees last year — including Justin Muzinich, Trump’s choice to be deputy secretary — because he believed the administration was stonewalling requests for oversight information. Muzinich was confirmed in December.

