Federal Judge Dismisses Trump Lawsuit To Obstruct Congress From Getting His Tax Records

The Hill reports, Judge dismisses Trump suit to block Congress from getting tax returns:

A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed an effort from former President Trump to prevent the Treasury Department and IRS from providing House Democrats with his tax returns.

“A long line of Supreme Court cases requires great deference to facially valid congressional inquiries. Even the special solicitude accorded former Presidents does not alter the outcome,” Judge Trevor McFadden, a federal district court judge in Washington, D.C., who was appointed by Trump, said in a 45-page opinion. “The Court will therefore dismiss this case.”

While the ruling is a win for House Democrats, it could still be a while before they receive Trump’s tax returns. McFadden stayed execution of his ruling for 14 days to allow the parties in the case to discuss next steps, and instructed the executive branch to not provide House Democrats with the tax returns during that time period. If the parties in the case don’t reach an agreement on next steps within 14 days, Trump can seek relief from an appeals court.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.), the lawmaker who requested Trump’s tax returns from the IRS, praised the ruling.

“This ruling is no surprise, the law is clearly on the Committee’s side. I am pleased that we’re now one step closer to being able to conduct more thorough oversight of the IRS’s mandatory presidential audit program,” he said in a statement.

Here’s what really pisses me off. The Judge’s ruling today was always true, from the time that Trump sued the House Ways and Means panel to block disclosure of his tax returns to intervene in the lawsuit the House Ways and Means Committee was forced to file when Trump’s Treasury Secretary and IRS Commissioner refused to comply with the law in July 2019.

It was only Biden’s election victory that ended the Trump Administration’s unlawful obstruction of Congress. Biden’s Justice Department says IRS ‘must’ hand over Trump tax returns to Congress:

The Justice Department told the Treasury Department that it “must” turn over former President Donald Trump’s tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee, which first requested them more than two years ago.

The direction came in an opinion released Friday by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which provides legal advice to the executive branch.

“The Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has invoked sufficient reasons for requesting the former President’s tax information.” Under the department’s interpretation of federal law, according to the opinion, “Treasury must furnish the information to the Committee.”

The OLC opinion indicated that the House committee had again submitted with the Treasury Department a request for the returns in June of this year. That request, obtained by CNN, shows that the committee had shifted the scope of its investigation since it had originally requested the returns, with a new interest in understanding the “business entanglements” of the former president and how the IRS’ presidential audit program handled them.

The House panel now say tax returns could “reveal hidden business entanglements raising tax law and other issues, including conflicts of interest, affecting proper execution of the former President’s responsibilities.”

“An independent investigation might also show foreign financial influences on former President Trump that could inform relevant congressional legislation,” the new request said. It also shifted forward the years of returns the committee was seeking, to cover Trump’s time in office more squarely. The new request seeks the returns between 2015 and 2020.

No one was ever charged with obstruction of Congress under this tax law, which provides for serious criminal penalties. See, Treasury Secretary and IRS Commissioner are in legal jeopardy (2019):

Another provision in our tax code, Section 7214(a), provides that “Any officer or employee of the United States acting in connection with any revenue law of the United States… who with intent to defeat the application of any provision of this title fails to perform any of the duties of his office or employment… shall be dismissed from office or discharged from employment and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than $10,000, or imprisoned not more than 5 years or both.”

The crystal-clear language of this law applied to Donald Trump, then-acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig. All should have been “dismissed from office or discharged from employment and, upon conviction thereof, fined not more than $10,000, or imprisoned not more than 5 years or both.” Justice delayed is justice denied.

Today’s ruling could have been issued on a Rule 12 (b)(6) Motion to Dismiss for failure to state a claim shortly after Trump filed his meritless lawsuit in 2019. There is no legitimate excuse for this Court to have taken 30 months to rule on this case. It was the unlawful obstruction of Congress by the Trump administration and Justice Department for much of this time that led to this dilatory delay and subversion of the law. This Trump appointed judge bears responsibility for the delay after the OLC memorandum from the Biden administration earlier this tear.

The Court’s ruling today should hold true on appeal. There is no grounds for appeal for the same reasons stated by the District Court in its ruling. The House Ways and Means Committee is entitled to the tax documents under the law and longstanding court precedents.

The Court of Appeals should not compound the unnecessary delay that the district court engaged in.

This is  the second time this year Trump has lost in court to shield his taxes from Congress and prosecutors. In February, the Supreme Court Denied Trump’s Final Bid to Block Release of Tax Returns:

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a last-ditch attempt by former President Donald J. Trump to shield his financial records, issuing a brief, unsigned order that ended Mr. Trump’s bitter 18-month battle to stop prosecutors in Manhattan from poring over his tax returns as they investigate possible financial crimes.

From the start, Mr. Trump’s battle to keep his returns under wraps had tested the scope and limits of presidential power. Last summer, the justices rejected Mr. Trump’s argument that state prosecutors cannot investigate a sitting president, ruling that no citizen was above “the common duty to produce evidence.” This time, the court denied Mr. Trump’s emergency request to block a subpoena for his records, effectively ending the case.

The ruling was also a big victory for the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr.