Pelosi Says House Democrats Will Release Trump Tax Returns If Biden Wins

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) asserted Thursday that if Joe Biden wins in November, he will release President Donald Trump‘s tax returns to House Democrats.

“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 [Ways and Means Committee Chairman] Richie 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 press conference.

Rep. Richard Neal (D-Massachusetts) first requested the president’s tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service in April of last year, noting a tax code provision that states the Treasury secretary “shall furnish” tax records requested by the chairs of Congressional tax committees.

If Neal’s committee received the tax returns, they could review them in a closed session and then submit a report to the House, making all or part of the documents public information.

The Trump administration has worked to block Neal’s request, prompting another lawsuit to obtain the financial records.

However, under Biden, a new Treasury secretary would release the tax returns and “then the world will see what the president has been hiding all of this time,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi then referenced Neal’s Sept. 1 primary, in which he is being challenged by Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, who has been endorsed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) and other progressive politicians and groups. Many progressives have argued Neal has not pushed hard enough for Trump’s tax returns, though Pelosi pushed back against this claim.

She said Neal’s committee “has been completely strong and tough-minded on this,” and that “we are at the mercy of the courts.”

Pelosi added: “But he has been very strong in how he has gone forward. He could not do anything more.”

The House leader offered her endorsement of Neal, touting his work on the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, as well as his success in promoting renewable energy via tax law.

“It would be a tremendous loss to that district to lose the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee,” she said. “And may I say as an aside if you promise not to tell anybody, every time I turn around with any bill that we’re doing, there’s some project of national significance in his district that seems to have made the cut. He’s proud of his district, he’s proud of its ingenuity and he makes sure that it is recognized in legislation in the Congress.”

Article by Katherine Huggins