Legal troubles continue to mount for Donald Trump after a three-judge panel from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the former president cannot stop Congress from obtaining his tax records.
The judges ruled unanimously that the House Ways and Means Committee can obtain Trump’s tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service, Axios reported.
As noted by CNN, “the 3-0 ruling from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals is a blow to Trump, who has argued for years in court against releasing his tax returns to any investigators. A trial-level judge he appointed while president previously rejected his arguments in the case.”
During his presidency, Trump was able to evade accountability over alleged tax crimes because officials he appointed to the Department of Treasury refused to comply with a request from the House Ways and Means Committee for his tax returns for 2013 to 2018.
However, the Treasury Department reversed itself under President Joe Biden and said that the records would be turned over to Congress.
Trump scrambled and asked a federal court to block the move. Nearly a year later, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that Congress has a right to receive the records.
In the 28-page ruling, Circuit Judge David Sentelle wrote that Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal’s request for the records was within the scope of his committee’s inquiry, and the court also rejected Trump’s argument claiming that the request had a retaliatory motive, making it invalid.
