Congressman Bill Pascrell, a Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, suggested jail time or even beginning impeachment proceedings against Treasury Sec. Steve Mnuchin and the head of the IRS for not complying with a subpoena for the president’s tax returns.
The Treasury Department rejected the committee’s request for the president’s tax returns, and the committee responded with subpoenas.
Pascrell said on MSNBC tonight he doubts Mnuchin will comply before again defending the committee’s request, saying, “We’re not asking the president to give us his taxes. We asked the IRS, which is what the law says. And we’re going to follow through on this.”
On the question of whether they will or will not comply, Pascrell said, “I believe that the Justice Department should first fine the two persons that we’re talking about, Mr. Mnuchin and Mr. [IRS Commissioner Charles] Rettig… and by the way, if they say no all the way, then I’d put them in jail all the way. That’s the law of the land.”
At one point he said he’d be willing to go so far as to pursue impeachment––but, in this particular case, at least, not against POTUS:
“If they say no on Friday, and if they ignore this, as has been done in the past, then we do have a constitutional crisis. And I’ll tell you, I only speak for myself. By Friday night, I’d be willing to begin impeachment process… [for] Mr. Mnuchin. Mr. Mnuchin and Mr. Rettig. We’ll start there. I say we’ll start there.”
You can watch above, via MSNBC.
[image via screengrab]
