Wyden threatens to hold nominees over Trump tax return defiance

Source: Politico

By BERNIE BECKER 05/30/2019 01:06 PM EDT

Sen. Ron Wyden threatened on Thursday to put a hold on Treasury Department nominees unless the administration offers fuller answers about congressional efforts to obtain President Donald Trump’s tax returns.

Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, had pressed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a letter this month about the administration’s handling of House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal’s request for Trump’s returns. He said Thursday that the department’s response — which came not from Mnuchin, but from Justin Sok of Treasury’s legislative affairs office — was “unresponsive and wholly unacceptable.”

“If the Treasury Department refuses to answer our questions, I am prepared to again place a hold on department nominees as I did previously when routine requests for information went unanswered,” the Oregon Democrat added. “Congress needs to take action to force the administration to comply with oversight.”

Wyden had already said last week that Brent McIntosh, Treasury’s general counsel and Trump’s nominee to be Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, “needs to be prepared to thoroughly answer” questions about his role in the department’s refusal to comply with Neal’s request and a subsequent subpoena if he wanted the position.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/30/wyden-threatens-nominee-holds-over-tax-return-response-1489740