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There’s unconditional black letter law that says the committee can request any tax returns it wants in writing and the Treasury Dept “shall furnish” them (in closed executive session unless the taxpayer otherwise consents), but hey go off anyway new counsel
The argument in the full letter cites a bunch of precedent that describes constraints on congress’s general investigative powers. In my opinion, all those cases are irrelevant to a request made pursuant to a duly enacted statute.
This isn’t, for judicial purposes, a case where Congress is saying “hmm we may need to pass a law let’s use our general investigation power to see what’s going on in the countryside.” Its a case where they passed a law, a president signed it, and now everyone has to follow it.
House Ways and Means has probably muddied the issue a little with their befuddled posturing about having a legislative purpose here. But they really don’t need one. There’s already a law. Everyone needs to follow the law. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
