A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that House Democrats have the right to review Donald Trump’s tax returns for 2015 to 2020, rejecting several legal arguments the former president has tried for years to keep their financial records private.
The decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit was a victory for the House Ways and Means Committee, whose chairman, Representative Richard E. Neal ( D-Mass.), first requested in 2019 that the Internal Revenue Service release copies of Trump’s tax returns to the committee. The Department of Finance initially declined and the issue has been tied up in litigation ever since.
The former president has a week to appeal the court’s decision, including asking the appeals panel to hear the case, before the ruling takes effect. Trump’s lawyer, Cameron T. Norris, who is handling the appeal, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) applauded the decision, calling it “an important victory for the rule of law.”
“Access to the former president’s tax returns is crucial to defending the public interest, our national security and our democracy,” Pelosi said in a statement. “We expect the IRS to comply with this ruling and release the requested documents so that Ways and Means can begin its oversight responsibilities of the mandatory presidential audit program.”
Judges review demand for Trump’s tax returns
The panel’s 3-0 ruling caps another round in the legal battle between Trump, who promised as a presidential candidate to release his tax returns but never did, and the committee, which argues that the law federal has the right to audit anyone’s taxes. in the process of creating stronger legislation on financial disclosure and auditing.
After Trump left office, the committee renewed its request for his tax returns in 2021, and the Biden administration’s Treasury Department agreed to provide them, prompting a lawsuit by part of trump
Seeking to keep his records private, Trump claimed the committee had no “legitimate legislative purpose” to request the tax returns; that the committee was violating the separation of powers; that the law allowing the committee to review tax returns is “facially unconstitutional”; and that the Treasury Department, by agreeing to turn over the records, was violating Trump’s constitutional rights in retaliation against him.
The appeals court rejected all four arguments.
The committee has “identified a legitimate legislative purpose that requires information to achieve,” the ruling says. “The mere fact that individual members of Congress may have political and legislative motivations is of no moment. Indeed, it is rare for an individual member of Congress to work for a legislative purpose without considering the political implications.”
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Regarding the separation of powers, “this case has required a lot of discussion about the intrusion of Congress into the Executive Branch and the personal life of [Trump] and the burden imposed by these intrusions”, says the decision. Although this burden “is specific,” it is “tenuous at best” and is “insufficient to require us to order the President’s request for return and return information.”
Rejecting Trump’s claim that the law allowing the committee to review tax returns is unconstitutional, the ruling says, “This statute can be properly applied in numerous circumstances, including before the court.”
And the panel rejected President Biden’s claim that the Treasury Department was violating Trump’s constitutional rights by acting with an improper motive (retribution) when it granted the committee’s request for tax returns.
“The improper motive must be a cause of government action, ‘that is, that the adverse action against the plaintiff would not have been taken without the motive of retaliation,'” the ruling notes. Trump “cannot demonstrate that Treasury’s decision to comply with the 2021 request would not have occurred without a retaliatory motive.”