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US treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin has failed to release Donald Trump's tax returns in time to meet a deadline demanded by House Democrats as the president continues to insist, incorrectly, that he cannot do so himself because his affairs remain “under audit”.
“The legal implications of this request could affect protections for all Americans against politically-motivated disclosures of personal tax information, regardless of which party is in power,” Mr Mnuchin wrote in a letter to House Ways and Means committee chairman Richard Neal.
He said the Department of Treasury respects lawmakers’ oversight duties and would make sure taxpayer protections would be “scrupulously observed, consistent with my statutory responsibilities” as the department reviews the request.
Mr Neal said in a statement that he “will consult with counsel and determine the appropriate response to the commissioner in the coming days.” Under the law, the IRS commissioner is required to provide access to any taxpayer’s returns when directed by the chairmen of the House or Senate tax-writing committees.
Mnuchin said Neal’s request raised important questions of “constitutional scope of congressional investigative authority, the legitimacy of the asserted legislative purpose, and the constitutional rights of American citizens.”
Trump's inner circle: Meet the members of the US president's cabinet
Show all 20He quoted Capitol Hill Republicans in calling the request “Nixonian” and warned that it could set a precedent for disclosing personal tax information for political purposes.
Earlier Wednesday, Mr Trump weighed in, telling reporters that he won’t agree to release his returns while he is under audit.
The president said, “I would love to give them, but I’m not going to do it while I’m under audit.” The IRS says there’s no rule against subjects of an audit from publicly releasing their tax filings.
Neal asked the IRS last Wednesday to turn over six years of the president’s tax returns within a week. Mr Trump has broken with decades of presidential precedent by not voluntarily releasing his returns to the public.
The president has meanwhile called for an inquiry into the “attempted coup” against him, attacked the EU over Brexit on Twitter and marvelled at the sheer size of Texas on a trip to San Antonio.
Additional reporting by AP. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load
Outgoing secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen yesterday swore in her (acting) successor, Customs and Border Protection commissioner Kevin McAleenan.
But the chaos in the department remains very real, with acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Ron Vitiello the latest to depart after President Trump revoked his nomination for the job on a permanent basis.
Here's Chris Riotta's report.
Elsewhere in Washington, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has condemned the Ohio Federation of College Republicans for circulating a fundraising email with the subject line: "AOC is a domestic terrorist".
You can see why she was alarmed.
Here's Wil Crisp's report.
Nikki Haley - the former US ambassador to the UN, seen struggling to contain her revulsion in the photo below - is plotting a "deeply personal" new memoir on her time as part of the Trump administration.
Former national security adviser HR McMaster also has a book out next year, following the likes of James Comey and Omarosa Manigualt Newman into the publishing business.
Another new voice proving an irritant to the Trump administration is one Dr David Glosser, a retired neuropsychologist and uncle to White House aide Stephen Miller, the 33-year-old "mastermind" behind the government's cruel policies towards asylum seekers at the border.
Dr Glosser previously wrote a stinging article for Politico in which he suggested his family might not have been allowed to escape Russian pogroms and enter the US in 1903 had someone sharing his nephew's views been in charge back then.
He has since told Democracy Now! that Miller "demonises asylum seekers and stirs racist hatred".
Here's Andrew Buncombe with more.
When President Trump pledged to "drain the swamp" in 2016, he can't have expected to find the Creature from the Black Lagoon at the bottom.
Climate activist Irene Kim of Greenpeace USA has taken to wearing a rubber mask of the amphibian B-movie monster to troll Trump's acting interior secretary David Bernhardt, memorably photobombing his confirmation hearings before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee earlier this month.
She has now delivered a petition containing 170,000 signatures opposing his being given the job full-time to the office of Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell. Bernhardt will be handed the gig if he passes a full Senate vote this afternoon.
Kim objects, with good reason, to a career oil industry lobbyist being brought in to oversee the US's public lands and waters.
Here she is explaining herself in her own words for Indy Voices.
A former White House lawyer to Barack Obama, Gregory Craig, is expected to face federal charges regarding legal work he carried out on behalf of ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in 2012.
The development arises from the Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged Trump administration ties to Russia and the prosecution of the president's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort.
After leaving the Obama administration, Craig is understood to have worked with Manafort in Eastern Europe during his tenure as a partner with the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
Craig's firm was hired in 2012 by Yanukovych's Justice Ministry to conduct a review of the prosecution of one of his leading political rivals, Yulia Tymoshenko.
The lawyer was accused of making "false and misleading oral statements" to the US Justice Department regarding the matter in 2014.
"Mr Craig is not guilty of any charge", his attorneys said in a statement.
Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar is again under siege, this time for a remark about Islamophobia in America in the aftermath of 9/11.
Speaking at an event last month in Los Angeles hosted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Omar lamented the "second-class treatment" of Muslim-Americans after the al-Qaeda atrocity, saying. "CAIR was founded after 9/11, because they recognised that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties."
The comment went viral after Texas Republican congressman Dan Crenshaw attacked her on Twitter.
She was quick to hit back.
It's worth comparing that remark by Fox and Friends host Brian Kilmeade ("You have to wonder if she's an American first") with Judge Jeanine Pirro's suggestion Omar's hijab was un-American, a line that got her suspended from Fox for two weeks in March.
Donald Trump’s older sister has retired as a judge, prematurely ending an investigation into whether she broke judicial rules by allegedly taking part in tax fraud schemes with the president.
Maryanne Trump Barry, an 82-year-old federal appeals court judge, filed her retirement papers in February, 10 days after a court official notified four complainants in the case the probe was “receiving the full attention” of a judicial conduct council.
No further questions, your honour.
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