President Donald J. Trump speaks to the media as he departs the White House for two events in Ohio in Washington, DC, USA, 20 March 2019. Trump spoke about the Mueller Report, ISIS, and his Twitter usage. EPA-EFE/JIM LO SCALZO But in his ruling Monday U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols said Trump could renew the fight and file his lawsuit in New York.
Trump’s lawyers argued in Washington that New York enacted a state financial-disclosure law to punish him for his speech and political views in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. The suit also names the House Ways & Means Committee, which hadn’t yet requested the information from New York.
The lawsuit was only dismissed with regard to the New York defendants, the attorney general’s office and the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. The case remains pending against the House Ways and Means Committee, which still hasn’t requested the tax returns. Nichols gave Trump and the House Democrats until Wednesday to file a joint report on how they plan to proceed.
“We are reviewing the opinion,” Jay Sekulow, the president’s lawyer, said of Monday’s ruling. “The case against the Ways and Means Committee proceeds in federal court.”
So far, the president has had success in slowing Democrat efforts to shine a light on his personal finances, appealing rulings that he lost and fighting subpoenas at every turn. Trump has defied recent tradition by refusing to make his tax returns public. Democrats have turned to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and Trump’s banks and accountants to get his financial information.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, a defendant in the suit, argued in court papers that Nichols doesn’t have jurisdiction to consider the president’s challenge to the state law, known as the TRUST Act, which makes those records available to certain congressional committees.
“Based on the current allegations, Mr. Trump has not met his burden of establishing personal jurisdiction over either of the New York defendants,” Nichols, who was appointed by the president, said in his ruling.
Read More: Trump Tax Return Case Doesn’t Belong in D.C. Court, N.Y. Says
Messages left with the White House and House Democrats weren’t immediately returned.
Early on in the case, a different federal judge appointed by Trump said he wouldn’t handle the lawsuit citing a court rule aimed at preventing judge shopping to ensure the integrity of the judiciary.
Breaking with recent decades of tradition, Trump has refused to make public his tax returns, even as he maintains ownership of a global business empire including a luxury hotel frequented by foreign dignitaries just blocks from the White House.
(Updates with details from the lawsuit, comment from president’s lawyer.)
To contact the reporter on this story:
Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net;
Laura Davison at ldavison4@bloomberg.net
Steve Stroth