Should Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal get ahold of Trump’s tax returns, he’d need to keep the material under wraps, said Sen. Chuck Grassley. | Zach Gibson/Getty Images congress Grassley would request Trump’s tax returns as check on House Dems

Senate Finance Committee Chuck Grassley said today he’d request President Donald Trump’s tax returns if House tax writers do, to make sure Democrats don’t politicize them.

"...I’m not asking for the tax returns, but if the House of Representatives are going to get them, then I want the Senate Finance Committee to have them," Grassley (R-Iowa) told reporters.


House Ways and Means Democrats are preparing to seek a decade’s worth of Trump’s personal returns, a request allowed under a rarely used law, as part of a broad investigation into Trump. Grassley could obtain the returns using the same authority.

Grassley said he doesn’t want House Democrats using the IRS “for political purposes,” citing presidents Richard Nixon and Lyndon B. Johnson for misusing the agency.

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Should Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) get ahold of Trump’s tax returns, he’d need to keep the material under wraps, Grassley said.

“You’ve got to keep them all secure,” he said.

However, the committee can vote to make all the documents public.

Grassley said he’d get Trump’s tax returns through a direct request to the IRS, not from Neal.

House Democrats plan to formally request Trump’s tax returns in about two weeks, a senior Ways and Means member, Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), said Tuesday. Neal has said he's taking a methodical approach to the issue to build a sound legal case for demanding Trump's tax returns, as the request is expected to land in court.

