Trump sues House Democrats to block release of state tax returns

Details: Trump claims that House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal was initially reluctant to use the TRUST Act because the state tax returns have nothing to do with the reason he gave for requesting the president's federal returns: "investigating the mandatory presidential audit program at the IRS to determine whether or not the program needs to be codified into federal law."

• The lawsuit adds that — under pressure from House Democrats — Neal has recently changed his tune and no longer opposes using the TRUST Act. If Neal were to invoke the law, Trump claims that it would prove he is "trying to expose the president's financial information for political gain, not to study the IRS's audit procedures."
• The lawsuit states that the speed with which Neal could invoke the law and immediately obtain Trump's state tax returns is what prompted Trump to file the lawsuit.
• Trump is demanding a permanent injunction to block the committee, the New York attorney general and the New York tax commissioner from exercising the law. He is also seeking declaratory judgments that the committee "lacks a legitimate legislative purpose" to obtain his state tax returns and that the TRUST Act violates the First Amendment.

Read the full lawsuit:

• "After nearly a month of stonewalling, it appears clear that the President has chosen the path of defiance, obstruction, and cover-up," the letter reads.

The state of play: Several White House officials have told Axios' Alayna Treene that the administration has no plans of complying with the committees' demands for interviews or documents without a full House vote formally approving an impeachment inquiry.

The big picture: The Trump administration's initial refusal to turn over the whistleblower complaint on the president's interactions with Ukraine is what led House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to finally support a formal impeachment inquiry.

Go deeper: Trump letter dares Pelosi to hold vote on impeachment inquiry

• Johnson asked the Justice Department earlier this week to look into links between Ukraine and Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. His letter questioned the narrative that Biden's actions in Ukraine had nothing to do with his son's connection.
• However, it was also discovered that he signed onto a 2016 letter that mirrored Biden's work to reform Ukraine's prosecutor general and judiciary.
• There is no evidence that Biden's reform work in Ukraine was to protect his son's business dealings, as the president and some of his allies allege, or that he committed any form of corruption.

The state of play: Sondland, a Trump political appointee who donated $1 million to the president's inaugural committee, denied that there was a quid pro quo between the Trump administration and Ukraine's government in a series of text messages that former Ukraine special envoy Kurt Volker provided to a group of House committees investigating the Trump-Ukraine matter.

• "I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign," Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, texted Sondland.
• Sondland texted back: "Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump's intentions. The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo's of any kind."
• The New York Times reported that Sondland's response came only after he spoke to the president.

Go deeper: House committees release texts from former Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker