"This week, Vice News filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in US District Court in Washington, DC against the IRS demanding that the agency turn over all audits of Trump’s tax returns from 2002 onward," Leopold stated.
Trump has claimed that IRS audits of his 2002-08 income-tax returns prevent him from releasing them to the public.
In February, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said it is rare for any individual US taxpayer to be audited every year and explained that an audit would not legally bar the returns from being made public.
The lawsuit, which was filed on Monday, said that the IRS and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have failed to respond to Vice’s requests for expedited processing under FOIA, a US federal law enacted in 1967.
US law does not require candidates to disclose the actual tax returns, but Trump is the first presidential nominee of either major US political party since 1976 to withhold such information. However, Trump has repeatedly stated he submitted more than 100 pages of relevant tax-related information to election authorities.
