WASHINGTON >> A House committee is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to make public six years of former President Donald Trump’s tax records, in what would be a significant act of transparency in the waning days of Democratic control of the House.
The Ways and Means Committee gave notice Friday that it would meet behind closed doors at 3 p.m. Tuesday for what is expected to be a vote on whether to release some data from Trump’s tax returns from 2015 to 2020, including the possibility of sharing the filings. The panel obtained the information from the Treasury Department last month.
Such a vote, which Republicans are likely to oppose, would be the culmination of a nearly four-year battle stemming from Trump’s decision to break with modern precedent and refuse to disclose his personal financial information as a presidential candidate and then as a sitting president.
For now, lawmakers remain constrained by law about what they can say about the matter. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., who as chair of the Ways and Means Committee requested Trump’s tax returns from the Treasury Department, said it concerned “documents protected under Internal Revenue Code Section 6103.”
That referred to the law that empowered Neal to obtain the returns.
“Nearly four years ago, the Ways and Means Committee set out to fulfill our legislative and oversight responsibilities, and evaluate the Internal Revenue Service’s mandatory audit program,” Neal said in a separate statement. “As affirmed by the Supreme Court, the law was on our side, and on Tuesday, I will update the members of the committee.”
Lawyers for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It is not clear whether the release of the records would reveal major findings. Prosecutors in New York had already obtained access to some Trump-related tax data, and his family business has been the subject of multiple investigations.
The Trump Organization was convicted of a tax fraud scheme this month. The New York state attorney general has sued Trump and three of his children, accusing them of lying to lenders and insurers by fraudulently overvaluing his assets.