WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's decision to not comply with the request by the House of Representatives Way and Means Committee to provide President Donald Trump's tax records is not in violation of the law, the Department of Justice said in a statement.

"The provisions in 26 U.S.C. § 6103 protecting confidentiality of tax returns prohibited the Department of the Treasury from complying with a request by the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee for the President’s tax returns," the statement said on Friday.

"Because section 6103(a) prohibited the disclosure of the tax returns sought in the Chairman’s request, as well as in the corresponding subpoenas, the Department of the Treasury’s refusal to provide the information did not violate either 26 U.S.C. § 7214(a)(3) or 2 U.S.C. § 192."

The Justice Department said the Ways and Means Committee did not have a legitimate legislative purpose to obtain Trump's tax returns since their "true aim" was just to make these documents public.

In April, the Ways and Means Committee requested the Treasury Department release Trump’s tax returns and other tax information for the 2013-2018 period. Responding to the request in early May, Mnuchin said that he would not release Trump's tax returns. However, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal reiterated his request and issued a subpoena for Trump's tax records.

In May, the New York Times revealed that Trump reported more than $1 billion in losses in his federal tax returns filed from 1985 to 1994. The US president, however, criticized the reports, calling them inaccurate and fake.