Trump Loses Bid to Shield Tax Returns From Congress

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Trump Loses Bid to Shield Tax Returns From Congress
Federal judge in D.C. dismissed the former president’s lawsuit

WASHINGTON—Former President Donald Trump lost his bid to shield his tax returns from the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday, after a federal judge dismissed the case.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden may still be appealed, but it marks a significant win for Democrats in more than two years of attempts to obtain Mr. Trump’s tax returns. It would take separate actions by the Ways and Means Committee to make any of the documents public.

“Even if the former President is right on the facts, he is wrong on the law,” the judge, who was nominated by Mr. Trump, wrote in a 45-page ruling. “A long line of Supreme Court cases requires great deference to facially valid congressional inquiries. Even the special solicitude accorded former Presidents does not alter the outcome.”

An attorney for Mr. Trump didn’t respond immediately to a request for comment.

Read the ruling...
https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/docu ... ruling.pdf

Unlike his recent predecessors and President Biden, Mr. Trump hasn’t publicly released his tax returns. He complained about extensive Internal Revenue Service audits while running for president; the IRS automatically audits sitting presidents.

Rep. Richard Neal (D., Mass.), requested then-President Trump’s tax returns and audit records in 2019, soon after he became chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. The tax code gives the Ways and Means chairman the ability to request any tax returns from the Treasury Department and says that the Treasury Secretary shall provide those returns.

But the Treasury Department, then part of the Trump administration, refused to give the returns to Mr. Neal. Administration officials said doing so would be unlawful, arguing that Democrats intended to get the documents for political purposes, not for legitimate legislative oversight.

The committee sued, and the case dragged on for months and years.

This year, however, the Biden administration reversed the Trump position and said it would hand over the documents. The lawsuit continued, with the former president fighting to block the Treasury Department from giving the documents to Mr. Neal.


In his ruling, Judge McFadden noted statements from Mr. Neal and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) that suggest their interest in Mr. Trump’s tax returns goes beyond potential legislative changes governing how the IRS audits presidents.

“True, the statements by Chairman Neal and Speaker Pelosi plausibly show mixed motives,” he wrote. “But the Supreme Court’s precedents analyze whether Congress has a valid legislative purpose, not whether that is the only purpose.”

Mr. Neal hasn’t said exactly what he will do with the returns and audit records once he receives them.

“This ruling is no surprise; the law is clearly on the Committee’s side,” Mr. Neal said on Tuesday. “I am pleased that we’re now one step closer to being able to conduct more thorough oversight of the IRS’s mandatory presidential audit program.”

Judge McFadden concluded his ruling by contending that Mr. Neal could oversee the IRS’s audits of presidents without publishing the returns.


“Anyone can see that publishing confidential tax information of a political rival is the type of move that will return to plague the inventor,” he wrote. “It might not be right or wise to publish the returns, but it is the Chairman’s right to do so. Congress has granted him this extraordinary power, and courts are loath to second guess congressional motives or duly enacted statutes.”

During court hearings, government lawyers have said that they wouldn’t race to hand over documents before appeals could be filed.

Write to Richard Rubin at richard.rubin@wsj.com

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-lose ... lead_pos13