The ex-president has to suffer a defeat in court in a dispute over his tax documents.
(Photo: AP)
Washington The US Supreme Court has cleared the way for ex-President Donald Trump’s tax records to be handed over to a congressional committee. The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a request by Trump’s attorneys to stop the transmission of the tax documents to the Finance Committee of the House of Representatives, which is still controlled by Democrats. For years, the Republican had taken legal action to prevent the documents from being handed over to the Democratic-led committee and finally failed at the highest level.
Contrary to usual practice in the United States, real estate entrepreneur Trump did not make his tax returns public either as a presidential candidate or after moving into the White House. Critics therefore suspect that he has something to hide. Trump announced last week that he intends to run again as a Republican presidential candidate in the 2024 election.
The Finance Committee in the House of Representatives has been trying to get hold of the documents for years. However, during Trump’s administration, the Treasury Department had stood in the way. It was only in the government of Trump’s successor Joe Biden last year that the Treasury Department finally instructed the IRS to hand over the documents to the committee. Trump fought back in court and eventually petitioned an appeals court in Washington to stop it. The court rejected this in a first round in August. Trump then requested a re-examination, which was also rejected in October. That left him with a trip to the US Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court also initially stopped the release of the documents in early November in response to an urgent request from Trump’s lawyers and gave both sides the opportunity to comment. In the end, however, the Supreme Court paved the way for the disclosure of the papers.
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It is a last-minute success for the committee: Since the Republicans won the majority in the US midterm elections and will be in charge there from the beginning of January, the Democratic-led body had little time to do anything about the matter .
Trump is currently involved in various legal disputes – including because of taking secret government documents to his private estate after leaving the White House.
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