Congress taking Trump team to court for illegally hiding his taxes

House Democrats on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in federal court to finally obtain Trump’s tax returns, the Washington Post reported.

Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, filed the lawsuit — which alleges that the Trump administration is breaking the law by ignoring a congressional subpoena to turn over Trump’s tax documents. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig are named as defendants.

Federal law clearly states that the House Ways and Means Committee is entitled to obtaining Trump’s tax returns.

However, the Trump administration has come up with cockamamie arguments for why they can break the law, claiming that they aren’t required to turn over the returns because the subpoena “lacks a legitimate legislative purpose.”

Trump, for his part, is the first president since Richard Nixon to refuse to make their tax returns public.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump repeatedly said he’d release the documents, but never ultimately did — making up a ridiculous excuse that the returns were under audit and thus he could not release them. Even if that were true, and 10 years of his returns were still being reviewed by the IRS, nothing would preclude him from releasing the returns while the IRS combed through them.

Obtaining Trump’s tax returns is a key part of Congress’ oversight of Trump.

Trump already stands accused of inflating his wealth and engaging in tax fraud, which the returns could provide insight into. The returns would also show how much or how little in taxes Trump paid.

New York state already passed a law that would allow Congress to obtain Trump’s New York state tax returns — which would give some, but not all, of Trump’s financial information.

However, this new lawsuit puts Congress one step closer to obtaining Trump’s federal tax returns.

Trump’s quest to keep his shady financial dealings secret could be coming to an end.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.