The U.S. judge heard the House bid to get Trump’s tax returns

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WASHINGTON – A U.S. judge on Tuesday will hear arguments in a long -running lawsuit if Congress can get former President Donald Trump’s tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service.

Trump was the first president in 40 years not to release his tax returns because he intended to conceal details of his wealth and activity of his family’s company, the Trump Organization. The dispute persisted for about 10 months after he left office.

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden in Washington will conduct a court hearing in the case at 2 pm EST.

Trump’s lawyers asked McFadden to dismiss the case, which began in 2019, saying the House Ways and Means Committee made an illegitimate request to see tax returns.

Democratic Representative Richard Neal, the committee’s chairman, said it requested Trump’s tax returns to review how the IRS audited presidents and to consider the new law.

In a court filing on Oct. 26, Trump’s lawyers called that justification a pretext for wanting to seek information that would embarrass Trump.

“No one believes Chairman Neal requested President Trump’s tax returns so he could study the law regarding IRS audits. No one,” Trump’s lawyers said.

The case has moved slowly in the courts, partly because the U.S. Justice Department reversed positions.

In July, six months after President Joe Biden took office, it released a memo saying the House panel offered “sufficient reason” for requesting the material.

In 2019, under Trump, it said the request for its committee taxes was based on a “dishonest” intent aimed at exposing them to the public.

The U.S. Supreme Court last year ruled against Trump in an unrelated lawsuit about whether a Manhattan prosecutor would see his tax returns as part of a criminal investigation against his business.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Scott Malone and Howard Goller)

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