oh, and in case anyone missed, last year the IRS prepared a memo saying basically the law is unambiguous, and therefore it has no discretion in withholding the president’s tax information (unless the prez decides to assert executive privilege)

right now Mnuchin’s argument is that he does have discretion. that was a loser argument to start and it just got weaker.

so expect a pivot to executive privilege. sure he can try. he’s likely to lose that too. Tax returns before he was prez? And in general how can his individual tax matters be a pertinent subject of official executive branch discussions?

As for the IRS, all it’s saying is if he does assert EP, they might have to wait till that fight plays out.