Biden’s Treasury Says More Time Needed to Decide on Trump Taxes

(Bloomberg) -- The Treasury Department says it needs more time to decide whether to fight House Democrats in their effort to get former President Donald Trump’s personal and business tax returns.

With the ongoing transition to new leadership in the Biden administration, Treasury needs more time to evaluate its position in the case, government lawyers said in a filing in Washington federal court Wednesday.

They asked the judge overseeing the case to give them until March 3 to file an additional report to the court.

House Democrats sued to get the documents saying they want to dig into Trump’s conflicts of interest, the possibility that foreign actors had financial leverage over him and reports that his businesses have links to Russian money-laundering operations. Democrats say each of those areas is a possible subject of legislation.

The battle dates to 2019, when the House Ways and Means Committee sued to compel then-Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to hand over six years of Trump’s personal and business tax returns. Under Trump, the Justice Department fought House subpoenas for the documents.

The case is Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives v. U.S. Department of the Treasury, 19-cv-1974, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

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