RUTHFULLY YOURS

As in so much else, Mr. Trump is the exception to modern Presidents in refusing to make his returns public. In 2015 he suggested that he’d release them eventually, telling ABC News in October that “at some point I’ll release it.” In February 2016 he told ABC’s John Dickerson that he’d release them “I would say, over the next three, four months. We’re working on them very hard. And they will be very good.”

We’ve long thought this is information voters ought to have. One argument for tax transparency are Bill and Hillary Clinton, who while running in 1992 released their returns going back to 1980. Why not earlier?

Well, after they were in the White House we learned that their 1978 and 1979 returns reported income from Hillary’s miraculous trading in cattle futures. Revealing those implausible trades abetted by Friends of Bill would have told voters much about the first couple’s habit of skirting legal norms.

The same standard should hold for Mr. Trump, who in early 2016 began floating the excuse that he can’t release his returns while they are being audited. This must be some audit because he’s still using that line. It’s unlikely that he’s covering up some illegality if he’s been audited as persistently as he claims.

More likely, Mr. Trump wants to block the disclosure of politically embarrassing details. Perhaps he doesn’t make as much money as he wants people to believe. Perhaps he pays relatively little in taxes given real-estate depreciation and other loopholes. Perhaps he donates little to charity, as tax returns revealed about Joe Biden when he was running for Vice President. Maybe this information would have made no difference in 2016 given that Mr. Trump’s opponent was the ethically impaired Mrs. Clinton, but voters can’t judge what they aren’t allowed to see.

Enter House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, who last week invoked a 1924 statute that he says lets his committee see any individual’s tax return as part of its oversight or legislative authority. Mr. Neal dresses up his request to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig in high-minded purpose.

“The IRS has a policy of auditing the tax returns of all sitting presidents and vice-presidents, yet little is known about the effectiveness of this program,” Mr. Neal said in a statement. “On behalf of the American people, the Ways and Means Committee must determine if that policy is being followed, and, if so, whether these audits are conducted fully and completely.”

Translation: We want to see Mr. Trump’s returns so we can release them in part or whole to embarrass him leading up to 2020. The rhetoric about oversight is eyewash.

Millions of voters are sure to see the demand in that context and judge Democrats and Mr. Trump accordingly. The tax-return demand may not even have all that much political potency, depending on what’s in them and given the cacophony of other subpoenas and charges that House Democrats are throwing at Mr. Trump. The President might even win the political fight if he lets the IRS release the returns to Democrats, who will then look nasty if they leak details to friendly reporters.

Mr. Trump nonetheless seems intent on keeping his taxes private, and White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told Fox News Sunday that Democrats will “never” see Mr. Trump’s returns. Mr. Mulvaney called the request a violation of the right to “confidentiality” for anyone who files taxes.

The upshot is another political standoff that will probably end up in court for months or years. If Mr. Trump prevails, Democrats will argue that he must be hiding something. Voters in 2020 will have to judge how much they value tax-return transparency for a sitting President among the myriad other issues of character and policy they have to consider.