Trump urges federal judge to block release of tax returns to Congress

Former President Trump's attorneys on Wednesday asked a federal judge to prevent the Treasury Department from releasing his tax returns to Congress, NBC News reports.

Driving the news: The Justice Department last week said the Treasury Department "must" release Trump's tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee, finding that the committee had "invoked sufficient reasons" for requesting the documents.

• Trump has been fighting the release of his tax returns to the panel for more than two years.
• The documents have already been obtained by the Manhattan district attorney, which brought an indictment against the Trump Organization and its longtime CFO on tax-related charges in July.

What they're saying: Trump's lawyers argued the committee wants to obtain the tax returns to find something embarrassing, not to examine how the IRS audits presidents, per 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," they said.
• "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."