House panel sues for Trump’s returns

WASHINGTON — A House committee sued the Trump administration in federal court Tuesday for access to President Donald Trump’s tax returns.

The House Ways and Means Committee said it needs the documents for an investigation into tax-law compliance by the president, among other things. It asked the court to order the administration to turn over the documents.

The lawsuit is the culmination of a fight between Democrats and Trump dating back to the 2016 campaign, when Trump said he could not release his returns due to an IRS audit. The records hold the promise of information that Trump has guarded from public view, including about his business entanglements, relationships with foreign creditors and governments and the value of his assets.

The committee originally demanded six years of Trump’s tax records in early April under a law that says the IRS “shall furnish” the returns of any taxpayer to a handful of top lawmakers. But Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told the panel in May that he wouldn’t be turning over the returns to the Democraticcontrolled House.

The Justice Department backed Mnuchin’s position, saying the request lacked a legitimate legislative purpose and was an “unprecedented” use of congressional authority.

The argument is the same one Trump has used in refusing other demands from Congress for financial records from accountants and banks Trump and his family have done business with. Lawsuits over those records were filed in federal courts in Washington and New York, and Trump has lost in those lawsuits’ opening rounds.

In its lawsuit Tuesday, the committee said the administration has refused to turn over the documents “in order to shield President Trump’s tax return information from Congressional scrutiny.” The committee said it’s not required to explain to the Treasury Department its reasons for seeking the tax information.

Steve Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Urban-brookings Tax Policy Center, said the committee is on strong legal footing because “it is entitled to oversee and investigate the executive branch, which is a key element of our checks and balances.”