President Trump argued in a court document filed late Monday that a federal judge should deny a motion to dismiss his lawsuit challenging New York’s law that allows Congress to request his tax returns.
The New York officials argued in their motion to dismiss the president’s suit that the case should not be heard in federal court in Washington, D.C., and should either be dismissed or heard in federal court in New York. But Trump’s lawyers on Monday argued the New York officials’ motion should either be rejected or should not be ruled on until Congress makes a request for the president’s state tax returns.
{mosads}“The New York Defendants’ motion to dismiss should be denied. It is premature, meritless, and futile,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
Trump, in his capacity as a private citizen, has filed a lawsuit in an effort to prevent House Democrats from obtaining his New York tax returns. The lawsuit names as defendants the Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee and its chairman, Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) and its chief tax counsel, Andrew Grossman, as well as New York Attorney General Letitia James and New York tax official Michael Schmidt.
New York enacted a law in July, known as the TRUST Act, that allows the chairs of Congress’s tax committees to request public officials’ state tax returns from the New York Department of Taxation and Finance. Neal has been more focused on trying to obtain Trump’s federal tax returns from the Treasury Department and may not end up seeking the president’s state tax returns.
The New York officials who are defendants in the lawsuit argue that the case should not be heard in D.C. because the federal court in D.C. doesn’t have jurisdiction over them, nor is it the proper venue.
But Trump’s lawyers argued that the New York officials’ motion is premature because the president hasn’t had a chance to conduct discovery on the jurisdiction and venue issues and because Congress has not yet made a request for the president’s state tax returns.
Trump’s lawyers also argued that the case belongs in federal court in D.C. because the president would be injured by the New York officials disclosing his tax information to a congressional committee in D.C.
“Having concocted a plan to send the President’s tax returns to D.C., with the intent to injure him there, working in close coordination with Congress, the New York Defendants cannot now complain about being hauled into a D.C. court,” they wrote.
Additionally, Trump’s lawyers also argued that the litigation wouldn’t “meaningfully change” if the New York officials’ motion was granted. If the New York officials were dismissed from the case, Trump would continue to pursue the lawsuit against the congressional defendants, and the New York officials might intervene in the case, Trump’s lawyers said.
“If the President can challenge the TRUST Act with or without the New York Defendants, then dismissing them from the case will accomplish nothing,” Trump’s lawyers said.
James said in a statement that Trump’s filing makes “preposterous arguments” and that New York is still confident that the TRUST Act is constitutional.
“President Trump has spent his career hiding behind lawsuits, and this one is no different,” she said.
A hearing is scheduled on the New York officials’ motion to dismiss on Sept. 18, in federal court in D.C. The judge assigned to the case is Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee.
Under an order Nichols issued last month, New York won’t provide the Ways and Means Committee with any Trump tax returns it requests until one week after Nichols rules on the state’s motion.
– updated at 3:55 p.m. on Sept. 10.