Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin has refused a request by the House Ways and Means committee for President Trump's tax returns, saying doing so lacked “a legitimate legislative process”.

“Out of respect for the deadlines previously set by the committee, and consistent with our commitment to a prompt response, I am informing you now that the department may not lawfully fulfil the committee’s request,” Mnuchin wrote in a letter to the panel's chairman Richard Neal. 

In doing so, legal experts argue, Mnuchin may have broken the law.

"I will consult with counsel and determine the appropriate response," Neal said in a statement on Monday. 

He had originally demanded access to Trump's tax returns in early April under a law that says the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) "shall furnish" the returns of any taxpayer to a handful of top lawmakers.

Neal maintains that the committee is looking into the effectiveness of IRS mandatory audits of tax returns of all sitting presidents, a way to justify his claim that the panel has a potential legislative purpose. Democrats are confident in their legal justification and say Trump is stalling in an attempt to punt the issue past the 2020 election. 

Trump has privately made clear he has no intention of turning over the much-coveted records. He is the first president since Watergate to decline to make his tax returns public, often claiming that he would release them if he was not under audit. 

"What's unprecedented is this secretary refusing to comply with our lawful ... request. What's unprecedented is a Justice Department that again sees its role as being bodyguard to the executive and not the rule of law," said New Jersey Democrat Bill Pascrell.

"What's unprecedented is an entire federal government working in concert to shield a corrupt president from legal accountability." 

Here's Tom Embury-Dennis with more.

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