Former United States President Donald Trump is desperately fighting off attempts to release his tax returns with his legal team urging a federal judge on Wednesday to block the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from giving away his documents to officials.
The Republican's lawyers are asking the judge to not allow the two agencies to hand over the former president's tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee. This is despite the committee arguing that Trump's returns will be used to identify how the IRS audits presidents of the country.
Trump's Tax Returns
The lawyers said that the reason given by the committee is simply a facade and are looking to find something embarrassing against Trump. The former president's legal team also added that the legal authority invoked by Congress was never, in history, used against a president, a former president, or any elected official.
In the court filing, lawyers said that while many House Democrats expressed their justifications for getting Trump's tax returns, no one argued the side of how the IRS audits presidents. The legal team argued that the committee chairman's request for Trump's release of his tax returns had very little indication of being about how the IRS audits presidents, NBC News reported.
Trump has asked the federal court to permanently block the Treasury Department from turning over his tax returns and order Richard Neal, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, to stop all investigations of the Republican and his companies. A new filing also showed that his legal team is aiming to recoup their legal expenses.
On Wednesday, Trump's attorneys argued that the committee's request for the Republican's tax returns was to obtain and expose information for the sake of exposure. They said the committee did not aim to study federal legislation but had some other impermissible goal, CNN reported.
President Joe Biden's Justice Department last week reversed course from the Trump administration. The Democrat's team said the Treasury Department is required to hand over the Republican's tax returns when the Ways and Means Committee demands them.
Digging Up Dirt
The filing is the latest attempt by House Democrats in their long-stalled demands for Trump's federal tax records. In 2019, the House sued the Treasury Department to enforce a subpoena for Trump's returns from 2013 to 2018, arguing that the former president was the only one who refused to release his tax returns among other incumbent presidents and major party presidential candidates.
The lawsuit against the former president said that numerous investigative reports revealed that Trump engaged in multiple aggressive tax strategies. The complaint argued that he used complex arrangements of his personal and business finances. The Republican is accused of committing acts to avoid decades worth of taxes.
It added that the committee has been unable to evaluate just how the President was able to take inappropriate advantage of the tax laws. The efforts have met criticism from many of Trump's aides, who argued that it was "presidential harassment" and was only an attempt to dig up dirt on the former president, the Washington Post reported.
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