Trump Sues House Panel, New York Officials to Block State Tax Return Release
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump sued the House Ways and Means Committee and New York State’s attorney general and tax commission in a bid to block them from sharing his state tax returns.
In a federal lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., Trump attorney William Consovoy, of Consovoy McCarthy PLLC in Arlington, Va., argue that “[b]ecause the Committee’s jurisdiction is limited to federal taxes, no legislation could possibly result from a request for the President’s state tax returns.
“The Committee thus lacks a legitimate legislative purpose for using the TRUST Act,” Consovoy states.
This lawsuit comes on the heels of a separate complaint filed by the House Ways and Means Committee seeking Trump’s federal tax returns.
Trump is seeking an injunction that would block the application of the new New York state law, which Governor Andrew Cuomo signed on July 8.
The law requires state tax officials to release the president’s state returns for any “specified and legitimate legislative purpose” on the request of the chair of one of three congressional committees: the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee and the Joint Committee on Taxation.
