“The memo is marked draft, it is not a final memo,” Mr. Mnuchin said. The draft memo, which was written by unnamed agency staff members, determined that the I.R.S. had no choice but to honor congressional requests for Mr. Trump’s tax returns unless he invoked executive privilege to protect them. Mr. Mnuchin said he believed the memo does not address the concerns that his legal team expressed when it decided to defy the request. Mr. Mnuchin has refused to comply with the Democrats’ requests because he said they lacked a “legitimate legislative purpose.”

Source: New York Times May 22, 2019 14:01 UTC