A federal judge denied a request of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) for President Donald Trump’s income tax records. The judge acknowledged the public interest in seeing the records but found no legal justification for forcing Trump to provide them. “…there are two established routes that could offer relief: President Trump may himself agree to this release of information, or, as EPIC suggests, Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation can authorize disclosure in the appropriate set of circumstances. Absent either of these events, EPIC is premature in bringing this suit,” wrote the judge. The judge also noted that EPIC had not filed a FOIA request with the IRS. (The Hill, August 18, 2017, by Megan R. Wilson)
EPIC asked for the records to provide information about Trump’s financial ties to Russia. Trump has denied that he has even made a deal with Russia or received any loans from them. (Courthouse News Service, August 18, 2017, by Britain Eakin)