Judge denies House Democrats’ attempt to fast-track Trump tax return suit
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A federal judge in Washington on Thursday told House Democrats to essentially wait in line in their push to fast-track a lawsuit demanding President Trump’s tax returns.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden wrote in an order that it was a complicated matter and there are only a “narrow set of cases” that require urgency, Reuters reported.
In July, The House Ways and Means Committee sued the Treasury Department and the IRS in an attempt to access Trump’s tax returns.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Trump has long declined to release his tax returns and wants to block two House committees from getting the records, calling their document requests unlawful.
The panel at the time did not cite a justification for the lawsuit but said it had “multiple oversight and legislative purposes” for seeking the material, including assessing the IRS’s own evaluation of Trump’s compliance with U.S. tax law.
In a June memo, the White House Office of Legal Counsel affirmed that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin did not have to provide the tax documents to the panel because Neal could then release them to the public.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Allowing a congressional committee to dictate when Treasury must keep tax information confidential and when it must disclose such information would impermissibly intrude on executive power," the document read.
Fox Business' Joe Williams contributed to this report