Trump Asks Court to Block Release of Tax Returns
Sally Kent
Former President Trump’s attorneys filed a brief Wednesday morning asking a federal judge to block the release of his tax returns to Congress.
The Hill reports:
In a court filing submitted Wednesday morning, Trump’s lawyers argued that the 2019 request from the House Ways and Means Committee to the Internal Revenue Service has no legitimate legislative purpose and that it is designed to “expose the private tax information of one individual — President Trump — for political gain.”
“The requests are tailored to, and in practical operation will affect, only President Trump,” the filing reads. “The requests single out President Trump because he is a Republican and a political opponent. They were made to retaliate against President Trump because of his policy positions, his political beliefs, and his protected speech, including the positions he took during the 2016 and 2020 campaigns.”
In their brief, Trump’s lawyers also argued that Congress has limited authority to investigate private citizens and their requests for his records exceed that authority.
“’Oversight’ and ‘transparency,’ in a vacuum, are not legitimate purposes” to request private information, they argued.
“The primary purpose of the requests is to obtain and expose [Trump’s] information for the sake of exposure, to improperly conduct law enforcement, or some other impermissible goal—not to study federal legislation,” Trump’s attorneys added.
The move comes after the Justice Department issued an opinion last week stating that Trump’s records must be handed over to the House Ways and Means Committee.
https://trumptrainnews.com/2021/08/04/trump-asks-court-to-block-release-of-tax-returns/