After a multi-year legal battle, the House Ways and Means Committee has finally received former President Trump’s tax returns, multiple outlets reported on Wednesday.
The Treasury Department complied with the committee’s request after the Supreme Court last week rejected Trump’s emergency appeal to stop the handover, effectively ending his years-long effort to keep the documents secret.
Trump in 2016 bucked the tradition of presidential candidates releasing their tax returns, claiming that he was under audit.
Amid multiple investigations into Trump’s business practices, House Democrats had argued that they needed to probe the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) presidential audits, but Trump repeatedly pushed back, claiming that the request was purely political and suggesting that his records should remain secret.
The former president also argued the request was unconstitutional.
But a Trump-appointed federal trial judge dismissed Trump’s suit late last year, a ruling later affirmed by the D.C.-based federal appeals court before the former president asked the Supreme Court to intervene.
On November 22, the justices rejected Trump’s appeal with no dissents.
“Why would anybody be surprised that the Supreme Court has ruled against me, they always do!” Trump wrote on Truth Social following the high court’s ruling.
“It is unprecedented to be handing over Tax Returns, & it creates terrible precedent for future Presidents. Has Joe Biden paid taxes on all of the money he made illegally from Hunter & beyond,” Trump ranted.
