USA Today (Op-Ed): The president is not above the law

“People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook.” President Richard Nixon famously said this line during the Watergate scandal in 1973, and Americans deserve to know what President Donald Trump is trying to hide by continually refusing to release his tax returns.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal deserves credit for formally requesting six years of Trump’s personal and certain business tax returns. The IRS must immediately comply with federal law to provide the committee with the requested documents so all Americans can see Trump’s conflicts of interest.

Disclosure of the president’s tax returns is about much more than just Trump, though. It’s about transparency and letting Americans decide whether the president is making decisions that benefit his businesses at the expense of American taxpayers. If Trump has significant debt to banks and/or individuals in certain countries, some of which might be adversaries of the United States, we must know because his foreign policy decisions might be compromised.

The For the People Act, the boldest anti-corruption democracy reform package in Congress since the Watergate era and which passed in the House of Representatives last month, would require major party presidential candidates to disclose their taxes. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has continually refused to allow debate or a vote on the bill.