US House sues Treasury and IRS seeking Trump tax returns News
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US House sues Treasury and IRS seeking Trump tax returns

The Committee on Ways and Means of the Democratic-led House of Representatives filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the Department of the Treasury and the IRS, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, seeking disclosure of President Trump’s tax return information.

According to the complaint, Section 6103(f) of the Internal Revenue Code requires “in mandatory terms that Treasury ‘shall furnish’ the Committee with ‘any’ requested tax return information.” The Committee said that since it was enacted in 1924, “in the wake of Congressional attempts to investigate agency wrongdoing in the Teapot Dome corruption scandal,” Section 6103(f) has been “intended to provide the Committee with unfettered access to tax return information necessary to carry out its broad mandate to oversee Treasury, the IRS, and the Nation’s tax laws.” In addition, the IRS has a “nearly century-old mandatory duty to provide tax return information to the Committee.”

The Committee further alleged that by refusing the Section 6103(f) request and shielding the president’s tax return information from Congressional scrutiny, “Defendants have mounted an extraordinary attack on the authority of Congress.”

Defendants have allegedly violated Section 6103(f), the Committee’s Article I subpoena power, and the Administrative Procedure Act. With respect to claims for relief, the Committee asked the Court to order Defendants to comply with Section 6103(f) and the subpoenas by producing the requested information immediately.