DOJ asks for more time to make decision on turning over Trump taxes

Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers have requested additional time to determine their response to House Democrats’ request for former President Trump’s tax returns. 

Lawyers for the department, along with attorneys representing the House Ways and Means Committee, said in a joint filing Wednesday that “they have had communications, and anticipate further communications, that may inform Defendants’ position in this case.”

The Justice Department lawyers, who represent the Treasury Department in this matter, asked the judge for an additional month to make a decision on whether to release the tax returns, according to the filing, which was shared with The Hill. 

The request is the latest move in the House’s lawsuit against the Treasury Department to enforce a subpoena for Trump’s taxes that the Treasury Department declined to comply with while Trump was in office.  

The DOJ lawyers earlier this month had requested additional time, citing the change in leadership with the new administration. 

The lawyers are set to update the judge again at the end of April. 

DOJ lawyers said earlier this month that they would not object to a move by Trevor McFadden, a federal district judge in Washington, D.C., to extend his order through April 2 that requires the Treasury Department to give Trump’s personal lawyers 72 hours’ notice before providing the former president’s tax returns to the Ways and Means Committee. 

However, lawyers for the House committee said that any additional time granted to the administration to make its decision on the tax returns “should be limited, given how long the Committee’s request has been stymied.”

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) in 2019 requested six years of Trump’s personal and business tax returns from the IRS. 

Trump’s tax returns have for years remained clouded in speculation after he repeatedly resisted releasing the records, breaking traditional practice among presidential candidates. 

Trump is also participating in the lawsuit brought forth by the Ways and Means Committee in a personal capacity.

–Updated on April 1 at 1:27 p.m.