• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Events
  • Civic Ed
  • Campaign Finance
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • Independent Voter News
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Balance of Power>
  3. trump administration>

More twists in multilevel fight by the House to get Trump's tax returns

Bill Theobald
October 22, 2019
President Donald Trump

President Trump is fighting multiple battles to prevent access to his tax returns

Win McNamee/Getty Images

The House of Representatives is asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit by President Trump seeking to prevent the House's majority Democrats from getting their hands on the president's New York tax returns.

The request by the House late Monday is the latest volley in what's arguably, besides impeachment, the most consequential current balance-of-powers fight between the legislative and executive branches.


Acting as a private citizen, Trump filed the suit in July in federal court, looking to shortcut any effort by the House Ways and Means Committee to use a freshly enacted New York law to obtain the state returns.

Earlier this month in a separate case, a federal judge dismissed Trump's effort to prevent the president's state returns from being turned over to a New York grand jury. Trump's efforts to get that ruling reversed will be argued Wednesday before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. No matter the outcome, the dispute is almost surely headed to the Supreme Court.

Presidential candidates and presidents have traditionally revealed their tax returns in the name of transparency, but Trump has refused to release his. Proposals to mandate that presidential nominees release their federal 1040s have become a standard part of democracy reform proposals. Such a requirement was included in HR 1, the comprehensive government reform bill passed by the House along party lines in March.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

The House's lawyers argued in their filing Monday that Trump's claim should be dismissed because the Ways and Means Committee has not yet asked for the president's New York returns and has not decided whether it will.

"Mr. Trump does not and cannot allege that he is suffering harm," the dismissal request states.

The House lawyers also argue that any president is banned by the Constitution from interfering in the affairs of another, co-equal branch of government.

In filing the suit against the House, Trump's attorneys argued that waiting until a request for the tax returns is made could be too late — they could be disclosed before the president had a chance to be heard in court.

While keeping its options with New York open, the Ways and Means panel has focused more intently on getting access to six years of Trump's tax returns directly from the IRS and its parent, the Treasury Department. Democrats say the committee has a clear right to see Trump's filings under a seldom-invoked section of the tax code that says Treasury "shall furnish" the committee with "any" tax information it seeks about any American citizen.

Administration officials rebuffed a subpoena for those returns this spring, saying they would not help the Democrats with a fishing expedition that lacked a legitimate policy making purpose. The House has now gone to federal court on that matter, as well, arguing the law gives the House total leeway to decide what it needs and why

From Your Site Articles
  • California court expedites Trump challenge to tax returns law - The ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Trump's Tax Returns Get More Interesting After ProPublica Report ... ›
  • There's another whistleblower complaint. It's about Trump's tax returns. ›
  • 8 Years of Trump Tax Returns Are Subpoenaed by Manhattan D.A. ... ›
trump administration

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Follow
Contributors

Reform in 2023: Leadership worth celebrating

Layla Zaidane

Two technology balancing acts

Dave Anderson

Reform in 2023: It’s time for the civil rights community to embrace independent voters

Jeremy Gruber

Congress’ fix to presidential votes lights the way for broader election reform

Kevin Johnson

Democrats and Republicans want the status quo, but we need to move Forward

Christine Todd Whitman

Reform in 2023: Building a beacon of hope in Boston

Henry Santana
Jerren Chang
latest News

Special counsels, like those examining Biden’s and Trump’s handling of classified documents, are intended to be independent – but they aren’t entirely

Joshua Holzer
13 January

Ask Joe: Combating extreme propaganda

Joe Weston
13 January

Talking across the political aisle isn’t a cure-all - but it does help reduce hostility

Dominik Stecuła
Matthew Levendusky
13 January

No one asked for a pro-corruption Congress

Sue Fothergill
12 January

Democratic Tools

Kevin Frazier
12 January

Podcast: Who stole the American dream?

Our Staff
11 January
Videos

Video: Want to fight polarization? Take a vacation!

Our Staff

Video: Kevin McCarthy is Speaker, but he's got a tough job ahead

Our Staff

Video: #ListenFirst Friday End of Year

Our Staff

Video: Minnesota Gov. Walz asks fellow Democrats to ‘Think Big’ when it comes to fixing voting issues

Our Staff

Video: What’s up with Elon Musk?

Our Staff

Video: Happy Xmas

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Who stole the American dream?

Our Staff
11 January

Podcast: Dinner and a​​ ​dialogue​

Our Staff
10 January

Podcast: McCarthy’s headaches & what rebels want

Our Staff
09 January

Podcast: What will we fix in 2023?

Our Staff
05 January
Recommended
Special counsels, like those examining Biden’s and Trump’s handling of classified documents, are intended to be independent – but they aren’t entirely

Special counsels, like those examining Biden’s and Trump’s handling of classified documents, are intended to be independent – but they aren’t entirely

Judicial
Ask Joe: Combating extreme propaganda

Ask Joe: Combating extreme propaganda

Pop Culture
Video: Want to fight polarization? Take a vacation!

Video: Want to fight polarization? Take a vacation!

Talking across the political aisle isn’t a cure-all - but it does help reduce hostility

Talking across the political aisle isn’t a cure-all - but it does help reduce hostility

Civic Ed
No one asked for a pro-corruption Congress

No one asked for a pro-corruption Congress

Government Ethics
Democratic Tools

Democratic Tools

Civic Ed