Aug. 9 (UPI) — The House Committee on Ways and Means expects to receive the tax returns and files from former President Donald Trump “immediately,” it said Tuesday.
A federal appeals court ruled 3-0 on a committee request to obtain Trump’s tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service.
The DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruling allows the committee access to the documents, after the former president argued for years against having to release the information.
The decision could still be appealed further. It stems from a lawsuit originally filed in 2019 by Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., seeking a court order compelling the IRS, then under the Trump administration, to turn over the tax returns.
“The DC Court of Appeals has just ruled that the law is on our side in seeking Trump’s tax returns. We expect to receive the requested tax returns and audit files immediately,” the committee wrote on Twitter Tuesday.
The ruling is unrelated to the Jan. 6 House Committee’s ongoing investigation.
“The Trump Parties have failed to state a claim for the reason that they cannot show that Treasury’s decision to comply with the 2021 Request would not have happened absent a retaliatory motive,” Senior Circuit Judge David Sentelle wrote in the court opinion.
Trump has declined to disclose any tax information since announcing his candidacy for the presidency in mid-2015. He did so, he said, because his returns were under audit by the IRS. But there’s no law preventing him from releasing the documents during such a review.
In late July, the Justice Department told the Treasury Department to hand the tax returns over to the House committee investigating his tax information.
