Trump loses US Supreme Court challenge to keep tax returns from Congress

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for the imminent extradition of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns to a congressional committee after a three-year legal battle.

Without comment, the court rejected Trump’s petition for an order that would prevent the U.S. Treasury Department from filing six years of tax returns for Trump and some of his businesses with the Democratic-controlled House Ways and Means Committee. .

The House argued that an order barring the Internal Revenue Service from providing tax returns would give lawmakers “little or no time to complete legislative work during this Congress, which is quickly coming to an end.”

If Trump had persuaded the country’s Supreme Court to intervene, he could have run out the committee’s clock with Republicans poised to take control of the House in January. Had the issue not been resolved by then, they would almost certainly have dropped the record request.

Trump’s second recent defeat on the Supreme Court

It’s the second time Trump has lost a Supreme Court case in months, and the third this year. In October, a court refused to intervene in a legal battle over the FBI’s search of Trump’s Florida estate and the discovery of classified documents.

In January, a court refused to stop the US National Archives from producing documents to a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. Judge Clarence Thomas was the only vote in favor of Trump.

In a controversy over tax returns, the Treasury Department had refused to provide records during President Trump’s presidency. But the Biden administration said federal law makes it clear that the commission has the right to examine taxpayer returns, including the president.

A lower court dismissed Trump’s claim, agreeing that the commission has broad powers to obtain tax returns.

Chief Justice John Roberts imposed a temporary freeze on Nov. 1 to allow the court to weigh legal issues raised by Trump’s lawyers against the administration’s and House’s counterarguments. .

Just three weeks later, the court reversed Roberts’ order without question.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Requests date back to 2019

The House Ways and Means Committee and its chairman, Democrat of Massachusetts, Richard Neal, released Trump’s tax returns for the first time in 2019 as part of the Internal Revenue Service’s audit program and an investigation into the former president’s compliance with tax laws. requested a letter.

According to federal law, the IRS is supposed to “provide” taxpayer returns to a handful of top legislators.

Under Trump, the Justice Department defended then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s decision to withhold tax returns from Congress. Mnuchin argued that he could withhold the documents because he concluded Democrats wanted them for partisan reasons.

After President Joe Biden took office, the commission updated its request, asking for Trump’s tax returns and additional information from 2015 to 2020. The Ministry of Finance took the position that it had no choice but to comply. Trump then tried to stop the extradition in court.

Then-Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. obtained copies of Trump’s personal and business tax records as part of a criminal investigation. That case also went to the Supreme Court, which rejected claims that Trump had broad immunity as president.