Former Trump Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is being accused – again – of lying to Congress and of breaking the law “to protect Trump’s taxes” by one of the top Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, which just won a nearly four-year fight to obtain the ex-president’s returns.
Tuesday night the Committee voted to release six years of Donald Trump’s taxes to the public, and while Americans are waiting for that to happen the Committee’s report has revealed several bombshells about Trump’s taxes, including that IRS did not perform mandatory audits of the sitting president’s returns.
U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ) Tuesday night posted video of him chastising then-Secretary Mnuchin during a congressional hearing in March of 2020. Pascrell is the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee Subcommittee on Oversight.
“By refusing to turn over Donald Trump’s business and personal tax returns to this committee. I think you’re breaking the law. You have no legitimate legal rationale,” Pascrell told Mnuchin during the heated session.
Mnuchin, indignant, replied, “I am not breaking the law. You have a different interpretation. You’re not a judge and this will be determined by a court,” Mnuchin said.
“Neither are you,” Pascrell replied.
“Your stated reasons for stonewalling our requests,” Pascrell added, “you never cite any superseding legal basis. The only thing you suffer is smug rhetoric and staggering lies.”
As Pascrell accused Mnuchin of lying, the Treasury Secretary can be seen raising his eyebrows and writing a note.
After a few minutes of Pascrell reading federal law to Mnuchin he then criticized him for complying with two Republicans’ request for information on “Mr. Biden’s son’s tax returns,” presumably referring to Hunter Biden.
“We’ve learned recently that simultaneously you’ve been offering documents to the loyal opposition. When two Republican Senators asked you for the private financial information of Joe Biden’s family, your department practically tripped over themselves to provide it.”
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Pascrell also blasted Mnuchin for the response he received from him letter, chastising a Mnuchin subordinate who accused him in writing of being “intemperate.”
“Being lectured on civility from someone who works for the President, President Trump, is like taking chivalry lessons from Jack the Ripper. It is impossible to be polite to corruption and people who break the law.”
Tuesday night Congressman Pascrell reiterated his accusation that Mnuchin had broken the law and lied to Congress.
“Years ago I called out trump treasury head mnuchin for breaking the law to his face,” the New Jersey Democrat tweeted. “He lied on live TV. Tonight we learned I was right he broke the law to protect trump’s taxes.”
He also tweeted, “Tonight we learned the IRS failed to follow the law and did not audit donald trump for years. Oh yeah and trump was lying when he said he was under audit.”
“Republicans are fuming we just voted to publicly release trump’s tax returns. They’re making threats. Fact: in 2014 republicans voted to release the private tax info of 51 taxpayers as part of a sham probe. Republican lies and hypocrisy know no bounds,” Congressman Pascrell added.
Watch the video from 2020 below or at this link.