Mnuchin acknowledges White House and Treasury lawyers discussed Trump tax returns

In a House hearing, Mnuchin said he personally had not been involved in the conversations and had not spoken to Trump or anyone else inside the White House about the release request.

"I have not had any conversations with anyone inside the White House," Mnuchin told Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Illinois, chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees Treasury.

He also added that those conversations happened before House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, D-Massachusetts, made a formal request for the President's records last week.

Tuesday's hearing was the Treasury head's first appearance since the request. The Trump administration has until Wednesday to respond, which Mnuchin later committed to meeting.

"In general, we try to accommodate these requests," Mnuchin told reporters in a brief gaggle. "I'm not going to make a specific comment on that, but it would be a good guess."

At the hearing, Mnuchin made clear that he was speaking for himself and not everyone at Treasury, which includes the IRS.

"I personally wasn't involved in those conversations," said Mnuchin. "I acknowledge there were conversations. I was not fully briefed on the extent of those discussions."

He has said in previous hearings that he would "comply with the law" regarding the release of Trump's returns.

Trump has broken with previous presidential precedent by refusing to release his tax returns, both as a candidate and since taking office, as well as by declining to divest from his family business, the Trump Organization. Democrats have demanded greater transparency regarding Trump's personal financial commitments as well as any obligations held through his businesses, which are now overseen by his two eldest sons.

Neal is using a little-known provision in the tax code that allows the chairman of House Ways and Means panel to make requests for an individual's tax information. Neal and other Democrats have argued that the law clearly states that if the chairman asks for the information, the secretary of the Treasury "shall furnish" it.

"This was a very reasonable approach," Neal told reporters last week. "We wanted to make sure that the case we constructed was one that stood up under the critical scrutiny of the courts."

On Friday, Trump's lawyers sent a letter to the Department of Treasury's counsel dismissing the request for tax returns as a politically-motivated pursuit, writing that "Ways and Means has no legitimate committee purpose for requesting the President's tax returns or return information. While the committee has jurisdiction over taxes, it has no power to conduct its own examination of individual taxpayers."

Separately, state Democratic lawmakers in New York on Monday made a fresh push to release Trump's documents, introducing legislation that would give Congress access to Trump's state tax returns.

Separately, Democrats in New York on Monday made a fresh push to release Trump's documents, introducing legislation that would give Congress access to Trump's state tax returns.

CNN's Lauren Fox contributed to this report.

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