Trump lawyers ask judge to block Treasury Department from giving client's tax returns to House Dems

The returns are being requested by the Democrat-controlled House Ways and Means Committee.

Lawyers for former President Trump on Wednesday urged a federal judge to block the Treasury Department from giving their client's tax returns to the Democrat-controlled House Ways and Means Committee, according to news reports.

They argued the committee’s stated reason of needing to see the returns to examine how the IRS audits presidents is really a pretext for wanting to look for something embarrassing, according to NBC News.

“While House Democrats had offered countless justifications for obtaining the president’s tax returns, no one at the time had ever mentioned a desire to find out how the IRS audits presidents," the lawyers said in their court filing, NBC also reports. "The chairman’s request bore little resemblance to an effort to investigate how the IRS audits presidents. It asked for the information of only one president, asked for open files for which audits have not been completed, and never asked the IRS for the most relevant information – namely, how it audits presidents."