July 2 (UPI) -- The House Ways and Means Committee sued the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service Tuesday to get President Donald Trump's federal tax returns.

The panel, led by Democrats, had asked for more than six years of Trump's personal and business tax returns, going as far as issuing subpoenas for the records. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and IRS head Charles Rettig rebuffed the request.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., claiming that Mnuchin, Rettig and their departments "have now - for what the committee believes is the first time ever - denied a Section 6103(f) request in order to shield President Trump's tax return information from Congressional scrutiny."

Democrats have said the federal tax code gives Congress the right to receive the records on request.

"In refusing to comply with the statute, defendants have mounted an extraordinary attack on the authority of Congress to obtain information needed to conduct oversight of Treasury, the IRS, and the tax laws on behalf of the American people who participate in the nation's voluntary tax system," the suit said.

In a letter to Ways and Means chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., in May, Mnuchin said Democrats were "weaponizing" the IRS to simply attack Trump politically and receiving his tax returns had no value.

"In reliance on the advice of the Department of Justice, we have determined that the committee's request lacks a legitimate legislative purpose, and ... the department is therefore not authorized to disclose the requested returns and return information," Mnuchin said in the letter. </s> House Democrats Sue For Trump's Tax Returns

Enlarge this image toggle caption J. Scott Applewhite/AP J. Scott Applewhite/AP

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., sued Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig to obtain six years of President Trump's tax returns.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., is the latest step in a months-long battle with the Trump administration over the president's tax records. Democrats want the court to enforce a subpoena requesting the returns.

Mnuchin rejected the subpoena in May, citing guidance from the Department of Justice. At the time Mnuchin said the request lacked a "legitimate legislative purpose."

Democrats argue in the court filing that the committee has the right to access Trump's private tax information under Section 6103 of the U.S. tax code, which says, "Treasury 'shall furnish' the Committee with 'any' requested tax return information" from any U.S. citizen, including the president.

The filing states that the law was "intended to provide the Committee with unfettered access to tax return information necessary to carry out its broad mandate to oversee Treasury, the IRS, and the Nation's tax laws. "

Committee Republicans have sided with Mnuchin, calling the request baseless and dangerous. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, the top Republican on Ways and Means, also said the lawsuit is motivated by partisanship and circumvents the usual committee process for requesting taxpayer information.

"The Democrats' partisan, flawed lawsuit continues their unprecedented and illegitimate pursuit to expose President Trump's private tax information," Brady said in a statement. "This is a dangerous course of action."

But many Democrats, including committee member Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., cheered the lawsuit as the next logical step in the effort to reveal details of Trump's business dealings both as a candidate and while in office.

"We are here today because Donald Trump and his enablers have sneered at our laws and avoided the thinnest accountability for their corruption," Pascrell said in a statement. "The Ways and Means Committee must file this action to stand for rule of law." </s> WASHINGTON (AP) — A top House Democrat has issued subpoenas for six years of President Donald Trump’s tax returns, giving Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig a deadline of next Friday to deliver them.

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal issued the subpoenas Friday, days after Mnuchin refused to comply with demands to turn over Trump's returns. Mnuchin told the panel he wouldn't provide Trump's tax records because the panel's request "lacks a legitimate legislative purpose," as Supreme Court precedent requires.

Neal is reminding the two Trump appointees in a Friday letter that federal law states that the IRS “shall furnish” the tax returns of any individual upon the request of the chairmen of Congress’ tax-writing committees. He says Ways and Means “has never been denied” a request. </s> Law360 (July 2, 2019, 12:06 PM EDT) -- The House’s tax committee sued the U.S. Department of the Treasury in federal court for President Donald Trump’s tax return information on Tuesday, setting in motion a legal battle that will likely end at the U.S. Supreme Court. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal made the request for the president's tax information under Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code. (AP) The House Ways and Means Committee sued Treasury and Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the Internal Revenue Service and Commissioner Chuck Rettig in a Washington, D.C., federal court after they rejected multiple requests and a subpoena for six years’ worth...

In the legal profession, information is the key to success. You have to know what’s happening with clients, competitors, practice areas, and industries. Law360 provides the intelligence you need to remain an expert and beat the competition.
• Access to case data within articles (numbers, filings, courts, nature of suit, and more.)
• Access to attached documents such as briefs, petitions, complaints, decisions, motions, etc.
• Create custom alerts for specific article and case topics and so much more!

TRY LAW360 FREE FOR SEVEN DAYS </s> WASHINGTON, July 2 (Reuters) - A Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives panel on Tuesday filed a long-awaited lawsuit in federal court to demand President Donald Trump's individual and business tax returns.

The House Ways and Means Committee filed the lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin refused a legal request for the records and defied two congressional subpoenas seeking the returns.

There was no official comment from the Trump administration, but Trump attorney Jay Sekulow said: "We will respond to this latest effort at presidential harassment in court."

Democrats want Trump's tax records from 2013 to 2018, which legal experts have said could shed light on the president's business dealings. Such a legal process, experts said, could unfold slowly and become an issue in the 2020 election.

Mnuchin refused to hand over the returns after House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal asked for the documents on April 3, under a federal law that says Treasury "shall furnish" such records upon request. The committee believes it is the first time an administration has denied such a request, the lawsuit said.

"In refusing to comply with the statute, defendants have mounted an extraordinary attack on the authority of Congress to obtain information needed to conduct oversight of Treasury, the IRS, and the tax laws on behalf of the American people," the lawsuit said.

Neal said in a statement that the panel was now pursuing the matter in court because of the administration's "noncompliance."

"The judiciary has been a bulwark against Trump's steaming corruption and roughshod lawlessness. I have no doubt our lower courts will side with Congress," Representative Bill Pascrell, a Ways and Means Democrat who has helped lead the campaign to obtain Trump's returns, wrote on Twitter.

Democrats who wanted Neal to move to court more quickly expressed relief at the filing. "This long-overdue legal action is needed to keep this bad president from setting a bad precedent," Representative Lloyd Doggett said in a statement.

Congressional Republicans condemned the effort as a dangerous political fishing expedition by Democrats that could "weaponize" confidential taxpayer information.

"The Democrats' partisan, flawed lawsuit continues their unprecedented and illegitimate pursuit to expose President Trump's private tax information," Representative Kevin Brady, the top Republican on Neal's committee, said in a statement.

Ways and Means is one of half a dozen panels in the lower house that are conducting investigations involving Trump and his administration, from his campaign's contacts with Russians during the 2016 presidential race to the sprawling business interests he has not divested since taking office.

The White House is refusing to cooperate with most of them, setting up other expected legal battles.

Trump broke with a decades-old political precedent by refusing to release his returns as a presidential candidate in 2016 and he continues to do so as president, saying his tax returns are under IRS audit.

House Democrats are using Trump's audit claim as grounds for seeking the returns. The lawsuit said the documents are needed to determine whether IRS audits are working properly, to examine how the agency administers tax policy where Trump is concerned and to ensure that Trump is complying with tax laws.

The lawsuit said the administration's continued refusal to produce the materials "is depriving the committee of information necessary to complete its time-limited investigation, thereby impeding its most basic constitutional functions."

It asked the court to force the administration to comply.

Neal could also have the option of requesting Trump's state tax returns from the New York Department of Taxation and Finance. The state legislature voted in May to share tax return information with a congressional committee that asks for it.

It was not clear whether Neal has contemplated such a move. </s> A Democratic-led US House of Representatives panel on Tuesday filed a long-awaited lawsuit in federal court to demand President Donald Trump's individual and business tax returns.

The House Ways and Means Committee filed the lawsuit against the United States Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin refused a legal request for the records and defied two congressional subpoenas seeking the returns.

"Despite its mandatory obligation, the Treasury Department failed to comply with the law and denied the Committee's request," Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal said in a statement.

Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow called the filing the "latest effort at presidential harassment" and said the president's legal team would respond in court.

Democrats want Trump's tax records from 2013 to 2018, which legal experts have said could shed light on the president's business dealings. Such a legal process, experts said, could unfold slowly and become an issue in the 2020 election.

Mnuchin refused to hand over the returns after Neal asked for the documents on April 3 under a federal law that says Treasury "shall furnish" such records upon request. The committee believes it is the first time an administration has denied such a request, the lawsuit said.

"In refusing to comply with the statute, defendants have mounted an extraordinary attack on the authority of Congress to obtain information needed to conduct oversight of Treasury, the IRS, and the tax laws on behalf of the American people," the lawsuit said.

"The judiciary has been a bulwark against Trump's steaming corruption and roughshod lawlessness. I have no doubt our lower courts will side with Congress," tweeted Representative Bill Pascrell, a Ways and Means Democrat who has helped lead the campaign to obtain Trump's returns.

Democrats who wanted Neal to move to court more quickly expressed relief over the filing.

"This long-overdue legal action is needed to keep this bad president from setting a bad precedent," Representative Lloyd Doggett said in a statement.

Congressional Republicans condemned the effort as a dangerous political fishing expedition by Democrats that could "weaponise" confidential taxpayer information.

"The Democrats' partisan, flawed lawsuit continues their unprecedented and illegitimate pursuit to expose President Trump's private tax information," Representative Kevin Brady, the top Republican on Neal's committee, said in a statement.

Ways and Means is one of half a dozen panels in the lower house pursuing investigations of the Trump campaign's contacts with Russians during the 2016 presidential race to the sprawling business interests he has not divested since taking office.

The White House is refusing to cooperate with most of them, setting up other expected legal battles.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler told MSNBC on Monday that he expects a lawsuit to be filed soon in federal court to enforce a subpoena for the testimony of former White House counsel Don McGahn.

Trump broke with a decades-old political precedent by refusing to release his returns as a presidential candidate in 2016 and he continues to do so as president, saying his tax returns are under IRS audit.

House Democrats are using Trump's audit claim as grounds for seeking the returns. The lawsuit said the documents are needed to determine whether IRS audits are working properly, to examine how the agency administers tax policy where Trump is concerned and to ensure that Trump is complying with tax laws. </s> The House’s tax-writing committee filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the U.S. Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service for access to President Donald Trump’s tax returns, reported. The lawsuit, filed by the the House Ways and Means Committee in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeks to enforce a statute that gives Congress access to anyone’s tax returns. The lawsuit comes two months after the Democrat-led panel subpoenaed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and IRS chief Charles Rettig to submit Trump’s personal and business returns for the last six years. The officials defied those May subpoenas, however, arguing the request to disclose Trump’s financial documents had no legitimate legislative purpose.

“In refusing to comply with the statute, Defendants have mounted an extraordinary attack on the authority of Congress to obtain information needed to conduct oversight of Treasury, the IRS, and the tax laws on behalf of the American people who participate in the Nation’s voluntary tax system,” the complaint states. The lawsuit also notes the committee is investigating whether the IRS has been enforcing its “self-imposed policy of annually auditing the returns of sitting presidents.” “Indeed, President Trump himself has repeatedly questioned the integrity of the process by which the IRS audits his tax returns, complaining that his returns are under ‘continuous audit’ and that the IRS’s policy of annually auditing Presidential returns is ‘extremely unfair,’” the complaint states. </s> WASHINGTON, July 2 (Reuters) - A Democratic-led U.S. House panel on Tuesday filed a long-awaited lawsuit in federal court to demand President Donald Trump's individual and business tax returns.

The House Ways and Means Committee filed the lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin refused a legal request for the records and defied two congressional subpoenas seeking the returns.

The filing sounded the starting gun in what is widely expected to be a lengthy legal battle that is likely to end in the U.S. Supreme Court.

There was no immediate comment from the Trump administration.

"In refusing to comply with the statute, defendants have mounted an extraordinary attack on the authority of Congress to obtain information needed to conduct oversight of Treasury, the IRS, and the tax laws on behalf of the American people," the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit said the committee believes it was the first time an administration has denied such a request.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal requested six years of Trump's returns on April 3, under a federal law that says Treasury "shall furnish" the documents. Neal said in a statement that the panel was now pursuing the matter in court because of the administration's "noncompliance".

"The judiciary has been a bulwark against Trump's steaming corruption and roughshod lawlessness. I have no doubt our lower courts will side with Congress," Representative Bill Pascrell, a Ways and Means Democrat who has helped lead the campaign to obtain Trump's returns, wrote in a statement on Twitter.

Democrats who wanted Neal to move to court more quickly expressed relief at the filing. "This long-overdue legal action is needed to keep this bad president from setting a bad precedent," Representative Lloyd Doggett said in a statement.

Congressional Republicans condemned the effort as a dangerous political fishing expedition by Democrats that could "weaponize" confidential taxpayer information.

"The Democrats' partisan, flawed lawsuit continues their unprecedented and illegitimate pursuit to expose President Trump's private tax information," Representative Kevin Brady, the top Republican on Neal's committee, said in a statement.

Ways and Means is one of half a dozen panels in the House of Representatives that are conducting investigations involving Trump and his administration, from his campaign's contacts with Russians during the 2016 presidential race to the sprawling business interests he has not divested since taking office.

The White House is refusing to cooperate with most of them, setting up other expected legal battles like this one.

Trump broke with a decades-old political precedent by refusing to release his returns as a presidential candidate in 2016 and he continues to do so as president, saying his tax returns are under IRS audit.

His former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, has told a House panel that he does not believe Trump's taxes are under audit. Cohen said the president feared that releasing his returns could lead to an audit and IRS tax penalties.

Democrats are pressing Trump to release tax records from 2013 to 2018, which legal experts said could shed light on the president´s business dealings. Such a legal process, experts said, could unfold slowly and become an issue in the 2020 election.

Their federal lawsuit said the administrations' continued refusal to produce the materials "is depriving the Committee of information necessary to complete its time-limited investigation, thereby impeding its most basic constitutional functions."

It asked the court to force the administration to comply.

Neal would also have the option to request Trump's state tax returns from the New York Department of Taxation and Finance, after the state legislature voted in May to share tax return information with a congressional committee that asks for it. (Reporting by Susan Heavey; Writing by David Morgan and Doina Chiacu; editing by Jonathan Oatis) </s> Law360 (April 3, 2019, 6:27 PM EDT) -- The Democratic chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday asked the Internal Revenue Service to furnish President Donald Trump’s tax return information for the past six years, taking...

To view the full article, register now.
The U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means sues U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and Commissioner of Internal Revenue Charles Rettig to obtain six years of U.S. President Donald Trump's tax returns.