Former President Donald Trump’s legal team asked a federal judge Wednesday to block a Justice Department order that the IRS release Trump’s income tax returns to a congressional committee.


What You Need To Know

  • Former President Donald Trump’s legal team asked a federal judge Wednesday to block a Justice Department order that the IRS release Trump’s income tax returns to a congressional committee

  • Last week, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel said House Ways and Means Committee had “sufficient reasons for requesting the former President's tax information.”

  • In a court filing, Trump’s attorneys argued that the committee’s requests were “unlawful and unenforceable because they lack a legitimate legislative purpose, exceed statutory authority (and) violate the First Amendment," among other reasons

  • Trump’s lawyers asked Judge Trevor McFadden to permanently bar the IRS from releasing the former president’s tax returns and also to "end all ongoing examinations" by committee Chariman Richard Neal into Trump’s finances and businesses.

Last week, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel said House Ways and Means Committee had “sufficient reasons for requesting the former President's tax information.”

The Ways and Means Committee has been seeking Trump’s tax returns for more than two years. During the former president's administration, then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he wouldn’t turn over the tax returns, claiming they were being sought by Democrats who control the House of Representatives for partisan reasons.

The committee sued for the records under a federal law that says the IRS “shall furnish” the returns of any taxpayer to a handful of top lawmakers.

The panel has said it needs the tax returns to examine whether IRS audits of presidents are being properly conducted.

In a filing in U.S. District Court in Washington on Wednesday, Trump’s attorneys argued that the committee’s requests were “unlawful and unenforceable because they lack a legitimate legislative purpose, exceed statutory authority, violate the First Amendment, violate due process, and/or violate the separation of powers.” 

They claimed that the committee’s primary goal is to dig for information that might be embarrassing to Trump and that Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., is part of a campaign to “harass an official from the other party because they dislike his politics and speech."

Trump’s lawyers also argued that the committee’s Democrats are not sincerely interested in examining how the IRS audits presidents.

“While House Democrats had offered countless justifications for obtaining the President’s tax returns, no one at the time had ever mentioned a desire to find out how the IRS audits Presidents,” the filing said.

Spectrum News has reached out to the Ways and Means Committee for comment.

Trump’s lawyers asked Judge Trevor McFadden to permanently bar the IRS from releasing the former president’s tax returns and also to "end all ongoing examinations" by Neal into Trump’s finances and businesses.

The filing now makes Trump personally a party in the lawsuit, which had previously been between the House and the executive branch. 

Trump was the first president since Richard Nixon to refuse to release his tax returns while in office.

The former president also sought to block his tax information from being turned over to the Manhattan district attorney’s office, a bid rejected last year by the Supreme Court. Manhattan DA Cy Vance Jr. is investigating possible fraud by Trump and his company. 

Last month, Vance charged the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, with tax crimes. They have both pleaded not guilty.

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