Responding to an opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel denying a congressional request for President Donald Trump’s tax returns, a law professor from Georgetown launched a tweetstorm detailing — point by point — what the DOJ is helping to hide from the public.

In the late Friday opinion, the OLC stated: “We advised that, although the text of section 6103(f) does not require the Committee to state any purpose for its request, Congress could not constitutionally confer upon itself the right to compel a disclosure by the Executive Branch of confidential information that does not serve a legitimate legislative purpose.”

According to Georgetown law professor Marty Lederman, the OLC is keeping Congress from their constitutionally mandated oversight responsibilities.

In a series of tweets, Lederman began, “The real shocker in the OLC opinion on the tax-return subpoena–the serious threat to Congress’s crucial oversight role–is not OLC’s conclusion that W&M’s stated justification (‘we need to investigate how the IRS audits presidents’) is pretextual, but instead the opinion’s assertion that what it (rightly) identifies as the *real* (or at least the principal) reasons for the subpoena *are illegitimate.* ”

With that he pointed out what the OLC feels is out of bounds, later adding, “In this respect the OLC opinion is of a piece with Trump’s brief in Mazars–it’s a fundamental attack on the power of Congress to investigate and expose, to itself and the public, whether and how the POTUS’s duty of undivided loyalty to the public interest may be compromised.”

You can see the tweets below:

2/ … but instead the opinion’s assertion that what it (rightly) identifies as the *real* (or at least the principal) reasons for the subpoena *are illegitimate.* The key is footnote 19, listing the many reasons House members have articulated …

— Marty Lederman (@marty_lederman) June 15, 2019

4/ — to “help protect against violations of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution and conflicts of interest, including with foreign adversaries such as Russia”;

— Marty Lederman (@marty_lederman) June 15, 2019

6/ — to “help those investigating Russian influence in the 2016 election”; assess whether “the Russians have on Donald Trump politically, personally, financially and “help the American people better understand the extent of Trump’s financial ties to Putin’s Russia”

— Marty Lederman (@marty_lederman) June 15, 2019

8/ In this respect the OLC opinion is of a piece with Trump’s brief in Mazars–it’s a fundamental attack on the power of Congress to investigate and expose, to itself and the public, whether and how the POTUS’s duty of undivided loyalty to the public interest may be compromised.

— Marty Lederman (@marty_lederman) June 15, 2019

10/ The real scandal is Footnote 19–i.e., what Trump & OLC think Congress is constitutionally forbidden from investigating.
@steve_vladeck @walterdellinger @neal_katyal @EricColumbus @qjurecic @jacklgoldsmith @benjaminwittes @SpeakerPelosi @charlie_savage @mls1776 @jshaub

— Marty Lederman (@marty_lederman) June 15, 2019

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