Supreme Court clears the way for delivery of Trump's tax statements to Congress

The court, without serious disagreement, rejected Mr. Trump's request for an order that would have prevented the Treasury Department from giving tax statements of the former president and several businesses for six years, the House of Representatives Commission, controlled by the Democrats.

The only one among the last presidents, Mr. Trump refused to publish his tax statements even during his successful 2016 campaign and not during his four years at the White House, citing what he said was an ongoing audit by the IRS. Last week, Mr. Trump announced he'd run again in 2024.

That was the second defeat of the former president in the Supreme Court in as many months, and third this year. In October, the court refused to intervene in the legal fight for the FBI's investigation into Mr. Trump's property in Florida, where classified documents were discovered.

In January, the court refused to prevent the National Archive from handing over the House of Representatives Commission documents investigating the January 6th attack on the Capitol. Judge Clara Thomas was the only vote in favor of Mr. Trump.

In the dispute over his tax statements, the Treasury Department had refused to provide the data during Mr. Trump's presidency. But the Biden administration said federal law is clear in determining that the commission has the right to consider any return of taxpayers, including those of the president.

The lower courts agreed that the commission has broad authority to take tax statements and reject Mr. Trump's claims that it was overstepping competencies and only demanded that his documents be made public.

Supreme Court head John Roberts imposed a temporary freeze on the issue on November 1st to allow the court to weigh the legal cases filed by Mr. Trump's lawyers and counterargument of the administration and the House of Representatives.

A little over three weeks later, the court lifted Mr Roberts' order without comment.
Democrat lawmaker Richard Neal, chairman of the commission until the start of the upcoming Congress in January, said in a statement that his commission “will now conduct the oversight we have requested for the three and a half years”.

Mr. Trump's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The House of Representatives claims that an order preventing the IRS from providing tax statements would allow lawmakers “at least or no time to complete their legislative work during this congress, which is rapidly approaching the end of”.

If Mr. Trump had convinced the country's highest court to intervene, the commission's deadline could have expired, with the Republicans willing to take over the Chamber in January. They would almost certainly have given up if the case had not been resolved by then.

The House of Representatives Commission first requested Mr. Trump's tax statements in 2019, as part of an investigation into the Internal Revenue Service audit programme and compliance with tax law by the former president.

A federal law says Internal Revenue Service “will secure the” statements of any taxpayers for a small number of key lawmakers.

The Department of Justice under the Trump administration had defended a decision by then Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin not to hand over to Congress the tax statements of Mr. Trump. Mr. Mnuchin argued he could hold documents because he concluded they were being sought by the Democrats for party reasons.

After President Joe Biden took office, the commission renewed the request, seeking Mr. Trump's tax statements and additional information from 2015-2020.

The White House argued that the request was valid and that the Treasury Department had no choice but to reconcile. Mr. Trump then tried to stop delivering statements to the court.

The then district attorney of Manhattan, Cyrus Vance Jr., received copies of Mr. Trump's personal and business records as part of a criminal investigation. Even that case went to the Supreme Court, which dismissed Mr. Trump's argument that he had broad immunity as president. / VOA