The House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday released documents relating to a Dec. 13, 1973, request by the Joint Committee on Taxation for President Richard Nixon’s tax returns that show five years of returns were provided the same day by the IRS.

Committee Democrats said the significance of the documents is that Nixon’s tax returns and other private tax information were handed over to what was then called the Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation because of authority under Section 6103 of the tax code.

But House Ways and Means ranking member Kevin Brady said the situations are completely different. The Texas Republican noted that Nixon voluntarily agreed to be audited by the committee. After the audit, which concentrated on his use of charitable deductions, the president had to pay the IRS $465,000.

President Donald Trump, on the other hand, has said he will not comply with House Ways and Means Chairman Richard E. Neal’s Section 6103 request for six years of Trump’s tax returns and those of eight Trump companies. Democrats have argued that part of their oversight responsibility is to examine the annual automatic audit process for presidential tax returns put in place after the Nixon case, and whether the IRS official in charge of a presidential audit is shielded from pressure.

It has been almost four months since Neal first invoked that same statute in requesting six years of tax returns and associated information for Trump and his companies. The statute states that the IRS “shall furnish” tax returns and tax return information upon receiving a written request from the JCT, Ways and Means or Senate Finance Committee leaders.