Pelosi says Dems will release Trump's tax returns if Biden wins election
Trump has refused to make his tax returns public, breaking a modern-day precedent set by other presidents
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pledged Thursday that Congress will obtain -- and release -- President Trump's tax returns if Joe Biden wins the November election.
"When we win this election, and we have a new president of the United States in January, and we have a new secretary of the treasury, and [Rep.] Richard Neal asks for the president's returns, then the world will see what the president has been hiding all of this time," Pelosi said during a news conference.
Trump has refused to make his tax returns public, breaking a modern-day precedent set by other presidents over the past four decades. He is currently waging a last-minute legal battle trying to stop Manhattan prosecutors from obtaining his returns and other financial documents.
A federal judge rejected Trump's attempt to stop the Manhattan district attorney's subpoena last week; the president's legal team has appealed the decision.
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In early July, the Supreme Court issued a pair of 7-2 decisions, ruling that Trump is not immune to a subpoena from the Manhattan district attorney over his financial and tax records. At the same time, the court kept a hold on the tax records that congressional investigators have been seeking.
The landmark rulings increased the likelihood that Trump makes it to the election without divulging his tax returns, banking and other financial documents to the public, despite efforts by Democrats, including House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, to force him to do so.
Pelosi made the comments when asked about criticism of Neal, D-Mass., by his Democratic primary opponent, Alex Morse, that he had not been aggressive enough in seeking Trump's tax returns.
“In terms of dealing with the courts now, he [Neal] has been strong and persistent and doing exactly what the lawyers say that we have to do in order to prevail,” Pelosi said. “He could not do anything more. We are at the mercy of the courts."
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Morse, the mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts, has been endorsed by progressive firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
During a debate between the two competitors last week, Morse accused his opponent of sitting on the push for Trump's federal and New York state tax returns for months, allowing Trump to file a lawsuit to block the records from being publicized.
"Congressman Neal dropped the ball," Morse said.
Pelosi offered a full-throated defense and endorsement of Neal on Thursday.
“He has been so progressive,” she said. “People will say what they will say, but I know what he has done and it would be a tremendous loss to that district to lose the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.”
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