President Donald Trump is suing in federal court to prevent the House Ways and Means Committee, the New York state attorney general and the New York tax commissioner from obtaining his tax returns.
Trump seeks a series of injunctions and restraining orders from the court.
“We have filed a lawsuit today in our ongoing efforts to end presidential harassment,” said one of Trump’s attorneys, Jay Sekulow, in a statement. “The targeting of the President by the House Ways and Means Committee, the New York Attorney General, and a New York tax official violates Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution.”
He then claimed that the tactics employed by the House and New York officials had no legitimate purpose and were a mere “political retribution.”
President Trump’s lawsuit comes at a time when he is also appealing separate court decisions that sided with Congress when Trump tried to prevent congressional committees from obtaining his financial records, CNN reports.
“President Trump has spent his career hiding behind lawsuits, but, as New York’s chief law enforcement officer, I can assure him that no one is above the law — not even the President of the United States,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James in response to Trump’s lawsuit.
Only weeks ago, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an amendment into law to allow Congress to obtain the President’s state tax returns, a move that President Trump’s lawyers deemed part of an effort to damage Trump politically.
His lawyers say that House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal is “facing intense pressure from his fellow Democrats” to use the New York law, as well as that he could decide to request Trump’s tax returns without previously notifying him and New York “ could respond to the request nearly instantaneously, mooting the President’s ability to object before his tax records are disclosed.”
The lawsuit argues that the New York law is unconstitutional and “the New York Legislature enacted it to discriminate and retaliate against President Trump for his speech and politics.”
New Jersey Democratic Representative Bill Pascrell Jr. said the lawsuit was “a pathetic stunt” and added that it should immediately be rejected because it is “not worth the forms it’s printed on.”
“They’ve blocked congressional testimony, they’ve obstructed prosecutorial investigations, and they’ve abused executive privilege — all to protect Trump’s malfeasance,” he said.
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