MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Judy Chu

Interview

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MADDOW:  Ways and Means Committee is where tax law gets written, which makes that a very powerful committee in Congress.  Ways and Means also has oversight and jurisdiction over tax policy and taxes in general.  And one of that committee`s sort of super powers is that the chairman of that committee is empowered by law to request and receive the tax return of any person in the United States. 
 
Tonight the chair of that committee in the House has announced he is exercising that power, and he is directing the IRS to turn over to him the last six years of President Donald Trump`s tax returns.  And his business tax returns too. 
 
Joining us now is Congresswoman Judy Chu of California.  She is a member of the Ways and Means Committee. 
 
Congresswoman, thank you for joining us tonight.  I really appreciate your time. 
 
REP. JUDY CHU (D-CA), WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE:  Thank you for having me. 
 
MADDOW:  So it`s clear and Chairman Neal makes clear that this is not a subpoena, but he also seems to be saying in the way that he is laying this out in his letter and the background information we`ve received from the committee, he seems to be saying that the IRS has no choice but to comply with this request that the language of the statute says they shall provide a return requested by the chairman in this circumstances. 
 
Is that your understanding? 
 
CHU:  Oh, yes.  It was in 1924 that it was established in the tax law in Section 6103 that the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee had the authority to ask for the returns of any individual in this country, including the president. 
 
And Chairman Neal is exercising this.  He is asking the IRS to provide this, and never has the IRS refused such a request.  It`s always been granted, even in the case of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Nelson Rockefeller. 
 
So it would be unprecedented not to have the IRS comply with this. 
 
MADDOW:  The president has reacted to this news this evening by essentially suggesting that he won`t allow his tax returns to be handed over, as if he has a role that he can direct the Treasury Department, that he can direct the IRS specifically, that they should not respond to this request.  What`s your response to that? 
 
CHU:  He doesn`t have the authority to do so.  The tax law allows us to ask the IRS for those returns.  The IRS is an independent committee and federal agency, and so they -- they must comply with the law.  And indeed, they have in every incident in which these returns have been asked for.  So, no, the president is not standing on the right ground on this. 
 
MADDOW:  I might imagine if try to put myself in the president`s shoes or in the shoes of his advisers and people who might be worried about what turns up in his tax returns, I imagine that they might be worried not just about the committee seeing these materials in terms of their oversight on tax matters, they might be worried about public scrutiny and what this would reveal about the president and his business life and anything else that these tax returns might speak to. 
 
To that end, at the end of Chairman Neal`s letter today, I`m no expert on this stuff, but the way I read his letter tonight, he seemed to be suggesting that whatever the IRS gives him in response to this demand, whether it`s the president`s tax returns or anything else the IRS hands over in response to this demand, Chairman Neal seems to be suggesting that those materials will become the property of your committee and thus importantly, they can`t be FOIA-ed.  No public citizen, no journalistic entity can file a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain these materials that the IRS is handing over.  It seems to be sort of an assurance to the IRS that this material, just because it`s being handed over to your committee, doesn`t mean that it will be in the public eye. 
 
CHU:  That is true.  And actually, the information goes to Chairman Neal.  It is up to Chairman Neal to decide whether to even share it with us.  So I certainly hope to see them, but nonetheless, it is up to Chairman Neal. 
 
The law is very, very clear on this, and, yes, you can`t do a Freedom of Information Act just to get this.  This is private information and up to the purview of the chairman`s decision. 
 
MADDOW:  Congresswoman Judy Chu, member of the Ways and Means Committee, this is stuff that we -- doesn`t usually come up in the course of a normal news decade.  So it`s helpful to get your help walking us through the specifics.  Thank you very much for joining us tonight. 
 
CHU:  Thank you. 
 
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