Donald Trump's lawyers presented an appeal on Wednesday to try to block the sending of the former US president's tax returns to Congressional Democrats, arguing that he was targeted for exclusively political reasons.
"The demands target President Trump because he is a Republican and a political opponent," assert his lawyers, speaking of "retaliation" in their argument presented in federal court in the capital, Washington.
The first since the 1970s to refuse
The Democrats, who control Congress, have been trying for years to obtain tax secrets from the 45th President of the United States, the first since the 1970s to always refuse to publish his tax returns when the billionaire made his fortune a campaign argument.
In a potential big step forward for Democrats, the US Department of Justice on Friday ordered the Treasury to "provide this information" to a House of Representatives committee.
Six years of claimed declarations
The commission, in charge of tax matters ("Ways and Means"), calls for six years of tax returns preceding the arrival of Donald Trump to the White House in 2017. It claims to want to study how the US tax authorities (IRS) control the finances of the presidents.
An argument rejected by Donald Trump's lawyers.
"While House Democrats presented countless justifications for obtaining the president's tax returns, no one at the time mentioned the desire to find out how the IRS audited presidents," they write.
"The demands are designed specifically for, and in practice will only affect, President Trump," they stress.
The Justice Department made this argument on Friday, writing that it was "possible that some congressional officials hope" that Donald Trump's tax returns are "published only to embarrass him."
However, these motivations would not make it possible to invalidate the commission's request, he considered, because it "obviously serves legitimate legislative objectives".
$ 759 in 2016 and often even zero, according to the New York Times
Just before the presidential election in November 2020, The
New York Times
published a survey based on 20 years of tax data concerning the ex-real estate mogul and his group.
According to the daily, he paid just $ 750 in federal tax in 2016, the year he was elected, and nothing in ten of the previous fifteen years, reporting more losses than gains.
Donald Trump had denounced "bogus information" and assured having "paid a lot of taxes" without giving more details.
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US presidential election: Donald Trump would only have paid $ 750 in federal taxes in the year of his election
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