Key Republican Brady won't demand to see Trump's tax returns

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady rejected a call by some Democrats to use his authority to demand to see President Donald Trump’s tax returns.

Brady, a Texas Republican, said he disagreed with efforts led by Representative Bill Pascrell, a New Jersey Democrat, to reveal the president’s tax documents — at least in part so they could be reviewed for potential links to foreign nations. Pascrell has said the chairman has the legal authority to demand any individual’s tax returns under a law that was invoked in the 1970s by a bipartisan commission to force former President Richard Nixon to disclose his returns.

“If Congress begins to use its powers to rummage around in the tax returns of the president, what prevents Congress from doing the same to average Americans?” Brady said to reporters Monday. “Privacy and civil liberties are still important rights in this country, and the Ways and Means Committee is not going to start to weaken them.”