Judge says Trump can't sue New York AG in court to stop release of tax returns

A federal judge on Monday (local time) dismissed New York's attorney general and state tax commissioner as defendants in President Donald Trump's lawsuit seeking to block a House of Representatives committee from obtaining his New York state tax returns.

The case is one of many where the President or his administration has asked federal judges to intervene before House Democrats obtain Trump's financial records, CNN reported.

US District Judge Carl Nichols said he lacked jurisdiction over Letitia James, the attorney general, and Michael Schmidt, commissioner of the state's Department of Taxation and Finance. The dismissal was without prejudice.

If Trump wants to continue to challenge a New York state law that says Congress can request his state tax returns, he'll either need to wait for Congress to make the request or start over with a new lawsuit in a New York court, the judge, Carl Nichols of the federal district court in DC, said Monday.

 

"Mr. Trump may press his claims against the New York Defendants in this Court should future events support the exercise of personal jurisdiction over them, or he may opt to pursue those claims in an appropriate forum," Nichols wrote in his opinion, which dismissed Trump's lawsuit against the New York state officials.

The judge is still considering whether Trump can sue the House Ways and Means Committee to stop it from requesting his returns under the state law.

New York passed a law earlier this year that would allow the congressional committee to access Trump's state tax returns.

Trump's lawyers filed a lawsuit in July, arguing that the New York law violates his free speech rights, Al Jazeera reported.

The lawsuit is just one of several court fights over access to Trump's tax returns.

Last week, an appeals court in New York ruled that Trump's longtime accounting firm must hand over eight years of his tax returns to New York prosecutors. Trump's lawyers have said they will take that case to the US Supreme Court.