-I'm going after the President's tax returns.
I think they're critical.
-We really need to see those tax returns.
-People are gonna care.
They want to know if their President is a tax cheat.
-We think that it will show us some connection
of what do the Russians have on Donald Trump.
-For decades, presidential candidates
have released their tax returns.
And for years, President Trump told voters
he would do the same.
-Maybe I'm gonna do the tax returns
when Obama does his birth certificate.
If I decide to run for office, I'll produce my tax returns.
-What is your tax rate? -It's none of your business.
You'll see it when I release.
At the appropriate time, I will release them.
I mean, I became president.
No, I don't think they care at all.
-Now with Democrats in control of the House,
lawmakers are poised to seek the President's tax returns.
-We're keeping close to the vest when we're gonna do this
and how we're gonna do this for obvious reasons.
But leadership agrees that this should be one of our priorities.
-New Jersey Democrat Bill Pascrell sits on the House Ways
and Means committee, one of three committees
with the ability to request
Trump's returns from the Secretary of the Treasury.
-Every citizen has a right to know
if the President of the United States is challenged ethically.
-Since February 2017, House Democrats have made
17 attempts to request to release Trump's tax returns.
All were shot down by House Republicans.
-Supporting this resolution would be
a clear invasion of privacy.
I would ask that all of our committee members
to take a step back for a moment
and consider the dangerous precedent of abuse
that would be set by this resolution.
This is a very important piece of legislation.
If this legislation we do not follow up on,
then we are surrendering to the Executive branch of government.
-Democrats plan to use a little known 1924 provision
in the federal tax code
to request the President's tax returns.
The provision was added during the Teapot Dome scandal
that led to the first Cabinet official
sentenced to prison for bribery and conspiracy
involving the leasing of public oil fields.
-The law does authorize two specific rights
to the tax committees.
They can obtain anyone's tax-return information
by requesting it from the Secretary of the Treasury,
and they have the right to submit
any of the information obtained to the full House,
the full Senate for possible disclosure to the public.
-Over 40 years ago, Congress cited this provision
when it released President Nixon's tax returns.
The IRS ultimately ordered Nixon
to pay over $400,000 in back taxes.
-I welcome this kind of examination
because people have got to know
whether or not their president is a crook.
Well, I'm not a crook.
I've earned everything I've got.
-The demand to see the tax returns
of presidential candidates really does grow out
of Richard Nixon's presidency.
Jimmy Carter ended up having to put a lot of his money
from the peanut farm business in a blind trust.
George W Bush, who it was revealed
had really immense wealth,
lived with that revelation through the tax returns.
And Romney's where we start to see some kind of a push-back.
-You know, I don't know how many years I'll release.
I'll take a look at what our documents are.
-The norm was established because of Richard Nixon.
And, so, every candidate feared if you didn't do this
that it would be devastating politically.
Voters wouldn't trust the candidate,
and the press would assume that the candidate was hiding things.
So, Romney tests that assumption,
he ends up releasing some material,
and then Trump altogether abandons it.
-Do you believe voters have a right to see your tax returns
before they make a final decision?
-I don't think they do. But I do say this.
I will really gladly give them. You're not gonna learn anything.
-It's pretty clear you can learn a lot through tax returns.
It's not everything.
But it gives us some guide as to the wealth of a candidate,
how they make their money,
and if there is or is not a problem,
at least with current investments and revenue,
with the job that they hold.
-Democrats acknowledge acquiring Trump's taxes
could be a drawn-out process.
-I think it's a little more challenging
than you might think. -The chairman has, you know,
the right to ask for those returns.
And the President may feel that there's no law
which forces him to do that.
And then we'll see.
We'll go to the courts.
-If they start investigating you,
that you can play and investigate them?
-Better than them. -Can you compartmentalize that?
-And I think I know more than they know.
If they do that, then it's just all it is a war-like posture.