Supreme Court paves way for Congress to get Trump’s tax returns

WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump’s tax returns must be given to the Congressional committee that’s been seeking the records for three years, 

The decision reverses Chief Justice John Roberts’ Nov. 1 decision to temporarily block the Treasury Department from turning over the 76-year-old Trump’s returns for the years between 2013 and 2018 to the House Ways and Means Committee after the former president’s attorneys appealed a DC Circuit Court of Appeals decision from August that ordered their release.

“The application for stay of the mandate presented to the chief justice and by him referred to the Court is denied,” the Supreme Court said in its Tuesday order. “The order heretofore entered by the chief justice is vacated.”

The House committee, led by Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), asked for the documents after Trump in 2016 became the first president꧟ial candidate in four decades to refuse to voluntarily submit his tax returns for public revi🍰ew, citing an alleged audit.

But Trump’s attorney, Cameron Norris, argued a forced handover would have “far-reaching implications” in his Oct. 31 appeal to the Supreme Court. 

“It will establish important (but incorrect) precedent for the political branches moving forward, binding in the circuit in which most conflicts over congressional demands for information must be litigated,” he wrote at the time. 

House Democrats have been investigating whether Trump used his office for personal enrichment, recently revealing that the Trump Organization raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars from stays at Trump hotels by foreign leaders and the Secret Service.

The former president’s namesake company is also on trial for tax fraud in Manhattan Supreme Court.