WASHINGTON — Democrats took the first cautious steps on Thursday in their quest to obtain President Trump’s long-hidden tax returns, further inflaming the contentious relationship between the president and the newly empowered House.
A fractious afternoon hearing of a Ways and Means oversight subcommittee was intended to begin building a case that Mr. Trump’s withholding of his returns was not only flouting modern political norms but also potentially hiding violations of federal tax laws and compromising the interests of the United States. Democrats argued that they had the legal authority and good cause to invoke an obscure provision in the federal code that gives the committee’s chairman access to private tax information to find the answers and potentially inform other related inquiries into Mr. Trump’s financial positions.
“We are not interested in getting someone,” Representative Bill Pascrell Jr., Democrat of New Jersey, said during one exchange. “We are interested in following the law, period.”
The Democratic lawmakers faced stiff objections from congressional Republicans, who accused them of seeking to violate Mr. Trump’s privacy, setting a dangerous precedent for political retribution and abusing the power laid out in the law. Earlier in the day, Mr. Trump had said the House’s multiplying inquiries into him, his business and his administration constituted “presidential harassment.”
“The Dems and their committees are going ‘nuts,’” he wrote on Twitter.
Tensions have also simmered between Democratic leaders who want to proceed slowly and liberals who think they are wasting time. But by the time the gavel fell in the Ways and Means hearing room, the Democrats had already made clear they were undeterred.
“Overwhelmingly, the public wants to see the president’s tax returns,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California. “They want to know the truth. They want to know the facts. And he has nothing to hide.”
What comes next is far less clear. The statute in question — Section 6103 of the federal tax code — gives the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee extraordinary powers to request that the Treasury Department release to him tax information on any filer, including the president. The provision allows the committee to review the tax information privately, but it would have to vote to disclose any return information or findings to the public.
There is scant precedent for its use to investigate an individual, much less someone of Mr. Trump’s stature. That and an all but certain legal challenge from the administration will most likely leave the outcome to the federal courts.
The tax policy experts assembled by the committee generally supported Democrats’ view of the law, arguing that Section 6103 gave the chairman wide discretion as long as he could show a “legitimate purpose” for obtaining sensitive records.
“Congress in effect placed tax return information in a locked safe in 1976, but…
