'Asleep at the switch': CNN legal analyst slams Democratic House chairman for dragging his feet on Trump's taxes

After weeks of deliberating, House Ways and Means Democrats are filing a lawsuit against the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service, for violating federal law requiring the administration to hand over President Donald Trump's tax returns to the committee upon request.

That's all well and good, said CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin on Tuesday — but Chairman Richard Neal (R-MA) created a worse mess of things by waiting as long as he did when the law was clearly on his side from day one.

"Does the chairman of the committee make a strong case for these records?" asked "Situation Room" host Wolf Blitzer.

"I think they make a very strong case, but I think Neal has been totally asleep at the switch," said Toobin. "It's July. Where has he been? There are lots of disputes going on about access to documents in congressional investigations, but there's a very specific law that says the Ways and Means Committee is entitled to ask for tax returns. It's very clear."

"Neal has been jerking around and holding hearings and writing letters and trying the make a record, when this is a very simple case that should have been filed in February, not in July, and now it will be in the district court and the circuit court and the Supreme Court," said Toobin. "Who knows if it will be resolved before the next presidential election?"

Watch below: