Former U.S. President Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower in Manhattan on July 19, 2021 in New York City.
James Devaney | GC Images | Getty Images
The income tax returns of former President Donald Trump must be released by the IRS to Congress, the Department of Justice said Friday.
The DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel said in an opinion that the House Ways and Means Committee had made a request with a legitimate legislative purpose to see Trump’s tax returns, by saying the committee is assessing how the IRS audits presidents’ tax returns.
“The statute at issue here is unambiguous: ‘Upon written request’ of the chairman of one of the three congressional tax committees, the Secretary ‘shall furnish’ the requested tax information to the Committee,’ ” the opinion said.
The decision comes more than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court said that Trump’s tax returns and other financial records had to be turned over by his longtime accountants to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., because of a subpoena issued as part of Vance’s criminal probe of the Trump Organization.
The Trump Organization and its long-time chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg were charged July 1 by Vance with crimes related to an alleged scheme since 2005 to avoid the payment of taxes on compensation for the CFO and other top executives.
Trump broke decades of precedent as both a presidential candidate and occupant of the White House by refusing to voluntarily release his income tax returns. He claimed that his returns were under audit by the IRS, but there is no prohibition on taxpayers releasing their returns to the public even when those returns are being audited.
Friday’s opinion by the DOJ said that the tax information of Executive Branch officials, which include presidents, should be denied to a tax committee of Congress “only in exceptional circumstances,” and when that request “lacks a legitimate legislative purpose.”
“The Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has invoked sufficient reasons for requesting the former President’s tax information,” the opinion said.
As a result, under federal law, “Treasury must furnish the information to the Committee,” the opinion said.
The opinion Friday by the DOJ’s legal counsel office came in response to a long-standing effort by Congress to obtain Trump’s returns.
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