Trump tries to block the sending of his tax returns to Congress
Donald Trump's lawyers on Wednesday filed an appeal to try to block the sending of the former US president's tax returns to Congressional Democrats, arguing he was targeted for exclusively political reasons.
"The demands target President Trump because he is a Republican and a political opponent," assert his lawyers, referring to "retaliation" in their argument presented in federal court in the capital, Washington.
Democrats, who control Congress, have been trying for years to get tax secrets from the 45th President of the United States, the first since the 1970s to consistently refuse to release his tax returns when the billionaire made his fortune a campaign argument.
In a potential big step forward for Democrats, the US Department of Justice on Friday ordered the Treasury to "provide this information" to a House of Representatives committee.
The commission, in charge of tax matters ("Ways and Means"), calls for six years of tax returns preceding the arrival of Donald Trump to the White House in 2017. It claims to want to study how the US tax authorities (IRS) controls the finances of the presidents.
An argument rejected by Donald Trump's lawyers.
"While House Democrats have presented countless justifications for obtaining the president's tax returns, no one at the time mentioned the desire to find out how the IRS audited presidents," they write.
"The demands are designed specifically for, and in practice will only affect, President Trump," they stress.
The Justice Department made the argument on Friday, writing that it was "possible that some congressmen are hoping" that Donald Trump's tax returns are "published only to embarrass him."
However, these reasons would not make it possible to invalidate the commission's request, he said, because it "obviously serves legitimate legislative objectives".
Just before the November 2020 presidential election, The New York Times published a survey based on 20 years of tax data on the ex-real estate mogul and his group.
According to the daily, he paid just $ 750 in federal tax in 2016 and nothing in ten of the previous fifteen years, reporting more losses than gains.
Donald Trump had denounced "bogus information" and claimed to have "paid a lot of taxes" without giving further details.