President Trump made it clear he refuses to give up on defending his tax records after Joe Biden’s Department of Justice announced on Friday that the IRS must hand his income tax returns over to Congress.
In a move to stop the process, President Trump’s attorneys asked the court on Wednesday to block the release, arguing that the records of former presidents, as well as sitting presidents, should be protected from subpoenas by members of Congress.
Patrick Strawbridge, Trump’s lawyer, told the federal court that Democrats wanted to examine the returns with the purpose of finding and releasing damaging information.
“After President Trump’s election, Democrats in Congress and across the country only became more eager to disclose the President’s tax returns for political gain,” said Strawbridge. “During the 115th Congress, when they were still the minority party, House Democrats gave a variety of reasons for wanting the President’s tax returns.”
All of those reasons revolved around one main objective to hurt Trump politically.
“Their statements all had a common theme: the tax returns would contain damaging information about President Trump that the House Democrats would release to the public,” Strawbridge continued.
This comes after Chairman of the Democrat-led House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Richard Neal, requested six years of Trump’s tax returns, and those of eight Trump-associated businesses from the IRS back in April 2019. However, in May 2019, then-Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, denied the request which was supported by the former Trump DOJ.
The DOJ’s Office of Legal Council (OLC) later overturned that decision in order to examine whether the 45th president complied with federal tax laws.
“The June 2021 Request reiterates and elaborates upon the Committee’s principal interest in the information—namely, evaluating the extent to which the IRS audits and enforces the Federal tax laws against a President. It also identifies an interest in determining whether former President Trump’s 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,” the OLC stated.
Trump’s personal attorney, Ronald Fischetti, expressed discontent with the OLC’s enabling of “politicization and harassment of Mr. Trump.”
“In my long career of practicing law, I have never seen anything like this. This politicization and harassment of Mr. Trump is uncalled for and outrageous,” he told the New York Times last week.
“There is no evidence of any wrongdoing here and I object to the release of the returns not only on behalf of my client but on behalf of all future holders of the Office of the President of the United States,” Fischetti continued. “Is no one safe?”
“Enough is enough,” Trump’s attorney concluded calling for an end to the Democrats’ tax return witch hunt.