House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal said he is confident in his legal standing, given that committee attorneys signed off on the request for the returns. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo Finance & Tax Inside House Dems' move to seize Trump's tax returns The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee had been quietly working behind the scenes for weeks to prepare the request.

Richard Neal is doing things his own way.

The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has for months rebuffed calls from his liberal colleagues to demand President Donald Trump’s tax returns. And when Neal finally made the request — having it delivered in a letter handed off to the IRS commissioner late Wednesday — hardly anyone knew about it much ahead of time, even Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).


The move was typical of Neal — subtle, without fanfare and on his own timeline – and shows how the Massachusetts Democrat has approached his job as a powerful chairman in the Trump era. Whereas other high-profile committee heads charged with oversight of the administration seem to relish fighting Trump, Neal has taken a much more muted approach.

“There was pressure, don’t get me wrong,” said Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), a Neal ally on Ways and Means. “There was several on our committee that wanted it, you know, yesterday and I appreciate their point of view. But I think he was right to not throw caution to the wind.”

Now Neal is prepared to issue a subpoena for Trump's tax returns if the administration refuses to fork them over, the latest escalation of Democrats’ multi-front investigation into the president.

The potential subpoena — which multiple aides confirmed to POLITICO — aligns with the combative posture Democrats have taken towards the Trump administration in the early months of their majority. But Neal wouldn’t elaborate on the possibility during an interview Thursday.

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"That remains to be seen," Neal tersely told POLITICO when asked about a subpoena.

For Neal, finally requesting Trump’s tax returns brings to a close the question that has been looming over him and the committee since Democrats won back the House in November. But the move is certain to ratchet up Democrats’ battle with Trump, with lawmakers and senior aides privately saying they’re certain the issue won’t be resolved until a judge decides.

Trump has consistently resisted releasing his tax returns, saying that he’s currently being audited by the IRS. On Thursday, he suggested the fight over his tax returns will move into the courts, telling reporters at the Oval Office that lawmakers will “speak to my lawyers. They'll speak to the attorney general.”

Neal’s move, announced later the same day Democrats had already targeted the special counsel’s Russia report and Trump’s financial records, comes after weeks of simmering tensions between the half dozen committees investigating the president.

The House Judiciary, Intel and Oversight committees have been leading the bulk of the investigative work into Trump world. But lawmakers and staffers on all of the committees involved have privately bickered over jurisdictional issues and which panel has purview over specific Trump issues.

And the backbiting has manifested itself in other ways. When reports surfaced in early March that Neal was preparing to request Trump’s tax returns, lawmakers and staffers on the Ways and Means Committee said privately they were blindsided. Senior Democratic aides later speculated the leak came from another panel involved in the Trump investigations.

Neal had been working quietly for weeks to prepare the request, with his close aides trying to keep all details under wraps.

Over the last several weeks, as Neal was being publicly pressured by liberals to make the request — including as part of a multi-million dollar ad campaign from Democratic megadonor Tom Steyer — he was meeting with House lawyers more than a dozen times on the issue.

Ways and Means attorneys have been developing a legal case with House counsel since January to rebut charges of political motivation. On Wednesday, Neal learned that the fundamental legal research was done and inked his signature to a letter demanding six years' worth of the president’s personal tax returns and those of a select set of Trump businesses — his revocable trust and four core companies under it, through which hundreds of others of Trump businesses operate.

But Neal kept quiet about the letter, which he signed with only a few staffers around. He didn’t alert committee colleagues ahead of time nor the heads of the other panels investigating Trump, and Neal didn’t even tell Pelosi until he called her 15 minutes before a press release went out at 6 p.m.

Barely an hour earlier, IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig received the letter at the end of a meeting with Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) in a sealed envelope from a committee aide who had kept it tucked away in a pocket since Neal signed it.

“There had to be some policy reasons for doing it, not just some manufactured witch hunt,” said Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), another member of the tax-writing committee, of the tax returns request. “That’s why I think Rich took his time to do this, [in] what he thought was the right way and the right time.”

Neal said he is confident in his legal standing, given that committee attorneys signed off on the request for the returns. In his letter, Neal cited an arcane law allowing him to examine anyone's confidential tax filings.

"They've prepared me and they've prepared the case," Neal told POLITICO Thursday.

Neal gave Rettig until April 10 to comply with his demand, though Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is expected to play a major role in the issue. If, as expected, the administration rejects the request, Neal is unlikely to issue a subpoena immediately, several aides said.

A follow-up letter to Rettig is likely on April 11, right in the middle of House Democrats’ annual retreat. A subpoena may not come until May in that case given that two weeks of recess follow the party confab, one aide said.

When it lands in court, the case shouldn’t take long, another of Neal’s staffers said, forecasting three to six months. They believe there’s no issue of the facts in this matter – it’s a straight legal case, and they believe that means it can be disposed of on a summary judgment that shouldn’t take years and years, the same staffer said.

Democrats are already bracing for attacks on their effort to ensure the IRS is fulfilling its decades-old mandate to audit the sitting president, as well as the vice president.

“We have an interest in seeing that the IRS is carrying out its responsibilities,” Lewis said.

And they're ready to go to battle.

"Mr. Neal has handled this with great dignity and respect for the law. And the law says 'shall,'" Pelosi told POLITICO when asked if Democrats were prepared to sue in order to get the returns. "'Shall,' that the secretary of the Treasury Department 'shall' release the returns."

Laura Barron-Lopez contributed to this report.

