Trump Takes Legal Action to Block Congress from Receiving Tax Returns
Justice Department ruled that the Treasury Department must turn over Trump’s tax return
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Donald Trump's legal team has filed court documents seeking to block his tax returns from being handed by the Treasury Department to the House Ways and Means Committee.
The filing said, CNBC News reported:
“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 chairman’s request bore little resemblance to an effort to investigate how the IRS audits presidents,” it added, according to CNBC.
“It asked for the information of only one president, asked for open files for which audits have not been completed, and never asked the IRS for the most relevant information — namely, how it audits presidents.”
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Trump's lawyer, Ronald Fischetti, said according to The Wall Street Journal.
“There is no evidence of any wrongdoing here, and I object to the release of the returns not only on behalf of my client but on behalf of all future holders of the office of the president of the United States."
On Friday, the Justice Department ruled that the Treasury Department must turn over Trump’s tax returns.
“The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has invoked sufficient reasons for requesting the former president’s tax information,” the opinion said, according to The New York Times.
“Treasury must furnish the information to the committee,” it added.
“The statute at issue here is unambiguous: ‘Upon written request of the chairman of one of the three congressional tax committees, the Secretary ‘shall furnish’ the requested tax information to the Committee,” Justice Department acting Assistant Attorney General Dawn Johnsen wrote, according to The Hill.
ABC News reported:
“Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Richard Neal first requested six years’ worth of Trump’s tax returns in April of 2019, in addition to tax returns for eight of Trump’s businesses, under a 97-year-old law that requires the Treasury secretary to ‘furnish’ the returns of any taxpayer to the chairman of the tax-writing panel by request.”
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“Access to former President Trump’s tax returns is a matter of national security. The American people deserve to know the facts of his conflicts of interest and undermining of our security and democracy as president,” she wrote.
“The House will always fight to expose the truth,” Pelosi added.
Democrats revived efforts to get Trump’s personal financial records following a Supreme Court ruling in July.
The Supreme Court ruled that the lower courts failed to take “a balanced approach” to the congressional subpoenas.
“In assessing whether a subpoena directed at the President’s personal information is ‘related to, and in furtherance of, a legitimate task of the Congress,’ Watkins, 354 U. S., at 187, courts must take adequate account of the separation of powers principles at stake, including both the significant legislative interests of Congress and the unique position of the President,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.
“Congressional subpoenas for information from the President … implicate special concerns regarding the separation of powers. The courts below did not take adequate account of those concerns.”
Neon Nettle reported Trump is owed $1.03 million in a tax refund for his Chicago skyscraper, but the state's attorney is now seeking to block it by filing a lawsuit.
In June, the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board ruled : "Cook County Board of Review overestimated the value of the building’s hotel rooms and retail space," according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Trump's tax refund would "come out of property taxes due to the city of Chicago and eight other government agencies, including Chicago Public Schools, which stands to lose the biggest chunk of money, about $540,000," the outlet reported.
