On Wednesday, Trevor McFadden, a federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump, extended an order requiring the United States Treasury Department to give Trump’s attorney 72 hours notice before providing any Trump tax returns. to House Democrats. The order, which was extended until March 3, expired on Friday.
The extension is just the latest in an ongoing legal battle in 2019 between Trump and House Democrats in control of the Forms and Resources Committee. President Joe Biden’s administration is still evaluating how to proceed in the process after appointing new leadership for the positions involved in the dispute, according to The hill.
In 2019, the committee chairman, Massachusetts Democratic representative Richard Neal, sued the Treasury Department and the IRS after the departments, under the control of the Trump Administration, refused to comply with subpoenas requesting six years of personal tax returns and Trump business leaders.
Neal pointed to a provision in the federal tax code that says the Treasury Secretary “must provide” tax returns requested by the chairmen of Congressional tax committees. However, Trump’s personal lawyers argued that the former president should be allowed to litigate before his personal tax information is handed over.
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As of July 31 Washington Post Op-ed, Neal explained that his committee sought tax returns to ensure that federal tax laws were being applied to Trump fairly and without undue influence from him as president.
“The IRS has a policy of conducting mandatory audits on all incumbent presidents and vice presidents,” wrote Neal. “But neither Congress nor the public knows anything about the scope of these audits and whether the president can exert undue influence on the IRS to affect his tax treatment.”
In response, Trump prosecuted the House’s Ways and Means Committee in July 2019. His lawyer said the committee had “no legitimate legislative purpose” to obtain Trump’s returns and sought only to do so to “discriminate and retaliate.” President Trump for his speech and politics “as a form of” political retribution “and” presidential harassment “.
“President Trump was then forced to open this case to safeguard his legal rights,” Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow said in a statement.
Trump’s tax returns have generated much controversy and political heat since he refused to release them during his candidacy in the 2016 presidential election, making him the first presidential candidate for a major party in the past four decades to refuse to do so. it. He claimed that he could not deliver them because he was being audited, but journalist Kurt Eichenwald called the excuse “false”.
Newsweek contacted Trump’s office for comment.