A U.S. judge refused on Thursday to fast-track a congressional lawsuit seeking to force disclosure of President Donald Trump’s federal tax returns, saying it was a complicated and important matter that should not be rushed.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden in Washington said in a written order that under U.S. law, there was “only a narrow set of cases that must skip to the front of the line,” and that the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee had not shown its lawsuit was one of them.
McFadden said that while he was not prejudging the case, Trump’s defenses “seem unlikely to be so trivial as to justify a rush to the merits of the case.”
In an Aug. 20 filing, the Democratic-led House Ways and Means panel said that “time is of the essence” in resolving the case it brought last month seeking to compel the Treasury Department to hand over years of the Republican president’s individual and business federal tax returns.
In the filing, lawyers for the committee said the current Congress would end on Jan. 3, 2021, and that a prompt resolution of issues in the case was needed to give the committee enough time to investigate Trump’s tax returns and pass any legislation in response…….read more
Source: Reuters
