Supreme Court paves the way for handover of Trump tax returns

The Supreme Court has cleared the way for a Democrat-led congressional committee to get a hold of six years of Donald Trump’s tax returns.

The court rejected Trump’s plea 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 following a three-year legal fight.

No comment was released with the decision Tuesday.

The decision is a major blow to Trump after he finally delivered his long-awaited announcement last Tuesday that he is making yet another run for the White House in 2024. 

During Trump’s presidency, the Treasury Department refused to provide the records Democrats so desperately wanted to get their hands on. 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.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for the imminent handover of six years of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns to a House committee after a three-year legal fight

The court, with a 9-3 conservative majority, did not released a comment with the decision Tuesday

The former president’s lawyers claim that the Democrats on the House committee only wanted the documents so they could politicize it and make them public.

Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative, imposed a temporary freeze on November 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.

The order Tuesday was unsigned and did not include a dissent. It ended the temporary hold placed by Justice Roberts. 

The ruling, despite the court’s 6-3 conservative majority, comes just one week after Trump announced he is making a run for president again in 2024. 

It also comes after the 2022 midterm elections, where Republicans were able to regain a majority in the House. This means that there could be a sense of urgency among Democrats to get their hands on Trump’s tax returns before the handover of power in January. 

The initial issue of Trump refusing to turn over his tax returns came up in the 2016 race. While it was not legally required for presidential candidates to publicize their tax returns, it has become a customary precedent to prove transparency and instill confidence that there are no conflicts with an individual seeking the highest U.S. office. 

Trump declared a massive $916 million loss on his 1995 tax returns, which were obtained by the New York Times. Such a loss could have allowed him to avoid paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years