House Democrats withdrawing appeal in case over Trump’s New York tax returns

House Democrats are dropping their appeal of a federal judge’s order that requires them to give notice if they request President Trump’s New York tax returns under a state law.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) and committee aide Andrew Grossman on Tuesday filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to voluntarily dismiss the appeal.

Neal has never requested Trump’s state tax returns and has been more interested in obtaining the president’s federal tax filings.

“On the advice of counsel, the committee withdrew this appeal and will be focusing on its federal case to obtain the president’s tax returns,” a Ways and Means Committee spokesperson said.

Neal filed a separate lawsuit against the Trump administration last year in an effort to obtain Trump’s federal returns. That case has yet to be resolved.

New York enacted a law last year that allows the chairs of Congress’s tax committees to request public officials’ tax returns from the state’s Department of Taxation and Finance. Shortly after the state law was enacted, Trump filed a lawsuit in his personal capacity in an effort to block the Ways and Means Committee from obtaining his state tax returns.

In November 2019, Judge Carl Nichols, a federal district judge in D.C. appointed by Trump, ordered the committee to give notice to the court and Trump’s lawyers if Neal requests Trump’s state tax returns.

Nichols also ordered the committee to not receive any requested state tax returns for a two-week period after making such a request. The Ways and Means Committee subsequently filed an appeal of the ruling.

Before the committee sought to drop the appeal, it had requested several extensions to file its opening brief in the appeal over the course of the year because of House counsel’s deadlines in other lawsuits and disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The most recent extension had postponed the deadline to file the brief to Wednesday.