US Supreme Court Gives Nod To Lawmakers To See Donald Trump’s Tax Returns

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday paved the way for release of Donald Trump’s tax returns to a House of Representatives committee handing defeat to the Republican former President who had dubbed the Democratic-led panel’s request as politically motivated, reported news agency Reuters.

During the proceedings, Trump was denied his October 31 emergency application by the judges who sought to block a lower court’s ruling that upheld the Ways and Means Committee’s request for his tax records as a justified part of the panel’s legislative work. No justice publicly dissented from the decision, the report added.

The Committee has demanded six years of Trump’s tax record from 2015 to 2022.

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Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal said the Supreme Court’s action upholds the principle of congressional oversight.

“This rises above politics, and the committee will now conduct the oversight that we’ve sought for the last three and a half years,” Neal said in a statement.

The report stated that Trump was the president in four decades who did not release his tax returns as he sought to keep secret the details of his wealth and the activities of his real estate company, the Trump Organization.

The Ways and Means panel had told the Supreme Court in a legal filing that siding with Trump would harm the constitutional authority of a co-equal branch of government “by in effect preventing Congress from completing any investigation involving a former president whenever there are allegations that the investigation was politically motivated.”

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The panel had requested to invoke a federal law that empowers its chairman to request any person’s tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The House Democrats had said that, in order to assess whether the IRS is properly auditing presidential returns, it needs to see Trump’s tax returns and to gauge if a new legislation is required.

Meanwhile, Trump’s lawyers have said the committee’s real aim was to publicly expose his tax returns and unearth politically damaging information about Trump.