Tornado Alley (PROG)

[arizona1]

So explain to us why trump shouldn't release his tax returns?

Trump hires law firm to fight bid by Congress to get his income tax returns

Source: CNBC

President Donald Trump has hired a law firm to battle congressional efforts to see his income tax returns.

In a letter Friday to Treasury Department General Counsel Brent McIntosh, lawyer William Consovoy argued that the House Ways and Means Committee has no "legitimate committee purpose" for seeking the president's returns. The attorney from the law firm Consovoy McCarthy Park also wrote that the Treasury would set "set a dangerous precedent" by releasing the returns.

"Even if Ways and Means had a legitimate committee purpose for requesting the President's tax returns and return information, that purpose is not driving Chairman [Richard] Neal's request. His request is a transparent effort by one political party to harass an official from the other party because they dislike his politics and speech," Consovoy argued in the letter obtained by NBC News.

The letter escalates the legal dispute between the White House and House Democrats, who formally requested the president's tax returns on Wednesday evening. Trump, who came into office in 2017 still owning sprawling global business holdings, did not release his returns during the 2016 election, breaking with decades of precedent. Democrats have said politics did not inspire their request.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/05/trump-hires-law-firm-to-fight-house-democrat-bid-to-get-tax-returns.html