An appellate court judge has ruled the Election Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a nonprofit, does not have the right to see President Trump's tax returns. EPIC filed its original Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in 2017.
CNN:
DC Circuit Court Judge Karen Henderson wrote that the President should be afforded the same privacy rights as any other citizen.
"This case presents the question whether a member of the public -- here, a nonprofit organization -- can use a FOIA request to obtain an unrelated individual's tax records without his consent," Henderson wrote in a opinion on behalf of herself and two other appellate judges. "With certain limited exceptions -- all inapplicable here -- the answer is no."
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"No one can demand to inspect another's tax records," she wrote. "And the (Internal Revenue Code's) confidentiality protections extend to the ordinary taxpayer and the President alike."
The decision in the DC federal appeals court affirmed the prior decision of a trial-level judge rejecting the freedom of information suit filed against the IRS by the nonprofit Election Privacy Information Center (EPIC) in 2017.
The nonprofit sent the IRS a FOIA request shortly after the 2016 election seeking Trump's tax returns stretching back to 2010 "and any other indications of financial relations with the Russian government or Russian businesses," according to Henderson's opinion.
The IRS declined the FOIA request and a subsequent request from EPIC, leading the nonprofit to sue the IRS.
Democrats will have the legal right to request the president's tax returns when they assume control of the House in January and plan to make it a top priority.
Judge rejects request to release Trump's tax returns under freedom of information laws (CNN)