By Joe Sanders
From the day the 116th Congress opened in January, Democrats have used their committee powers in a multi-front legal war on President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, Trump fought back with some legal warfare of his own.
And the fight isn’t just on Capitol Hill.
In federal court in Washington, Trump sued the House Committee on Ways and Means and New York state, claiming congressional Democrats were working with New York Democrats to get around federal laws protecting Trump’s tax returns, according to The Hill.
The lawsuit charges Rep. Richard Neal, the Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, is trying to use a law passed in May by New York lawmakers that authorizes the release of Trump’s state tax records to congressional committees.
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Before he was elected president, of course, Trump was a New York resident.
The law, known as the TRUST Act, also applies to members of the president’s staff as well as Cabinet members who are from New York and New York state elected officials and judges, The Daily Beast reported when it was signed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a vocal Trump opponent.
The law was clearly aimed at Trump and his White House team. And Trump’s lawsuit calls it out.
“New York legislators admitted that the TRUST Act’s purpose was to help the Committee expose the President’s private tax information for political gain; its purpose was their purpose,” the lawsuit states.
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“And New York Democrats designed the TRUST Act to be a complement to the Committee’s litigation over the President’s federal tax returns — a ‘workaround,’ an ‘in case of emergency break glass’ option, a ‘constitutional escape hatch should [the Committee] not want to wait for the federal court case and its appeals process to be finalized.”
On July 2, the Ways and Means Committee filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in federal court after Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin turned down the committee’s request for Trump’s tax returns in April.
In his letter turning down Neal’s request, Mnuchin called the Ways and Means Committee’s hunt for Trump’s tax records an “abuse of power.”
He also pointed out that what the Democrats were trying to do with Trump could affect every American.
“The legal implications of this request could affect protections for all American against politically-motivated disclosures of personal tax information, regardless of which party is in power,” Mnuchin wrote.
Trump’s lawsuit filed Tuesday also notes the blatant politics behind the Democratic lawmakers’ obsession with his tax returns.
Democrats tried to make an issue of it during the presidential campaign, but it failed. Now, Trump’s lawsuit states, Democrats are turning to other methods.
“Ultimately, this issue was litigated in the 2016 election. Voters heard the criticisms from [former] Secretary [of State Hillary] Clinton, and they elected President Trump anyway. Democrats in Congress and across the country, however, have only become more eager to disclose the President’s tax returns for political gain,” the lawsuit states.
At another point, the suit makes it crystal clear.
“President Trump was thus forced to bring this lawsuit to safeguard his legal rights,” it states.
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