The Treasury Department said Wednesday it has complied with a court order to make former President Donald Trump’s tax returns available to a congressional committee.
The Supreme Court last week rejected Trump’s request for an order that would have prevented the Treasury Department from giving six years of tax returns for Trump and some of his businesses to the Democratic-controlled House Ways and Means Committee.
The court, without dissent, cleared the legal obstacle to disclosure of Trump’s tax returns.
A department spokesperson said “Treasury has complied with last week’s court decision” but declined to say whether the committee had accessed the documents. The spokesperson declined to be identified by name because of privacy constraints.
Trump refused to release his tax returns during his 2016 presidential campaign or his four years in the White House.
After the Supreme Court action, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., said in a statement that “since the Magna Carta, the principle of oversight has been upheld, and today is no different. This rises above politics, and the Committee will now conduct the oversight that we’ve sought for the last three and a half years.”
Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the dispute over his tax returns, the Treasury Department had refused to provide the records during Trump’s presidency. But the Biden administration said federal law is clear that the committee has the right to examine any taxpayer’s return, including the president’s.
Lower courts agreed that the committee has broad authority to obtain tax returns and rejected Trump’s claims that it was overstepping and only wanted the documents so they could be made public.
Chief Justice John Roberts imposed a temporary freeze on Nov. 1 to allow the court to weigh the legal issues raised by Trump’s lawyers and the counter-arguments of the administration and the House of Representatives.
Just over three weeks later, the court lifted Roberts’ order without comment.
(AP)
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2 Responses
> But the Biden administration said federal law is clear that the committee has the right to examine any taxpayer’s return, including the president’s.
So the new Congress in January can get Hunter Biden’s tax returns?
They need to articulate a legislative purpose but as the Republicans have been adamantly clear this is just political posturing the Executive branch should refuse any such request and instead insist it is necessary to be resolved via the courts (eventually by the Supreme Court as such a request would involve unprecedented separation of power questions).