Supreme Court shoots down Trump's effort to keep his taxes from Congress
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the path for congressional investigators to obtain tax records from Donald Trump and his businesses, ending a last-ditch effort by the former president to block House Democrats from seeing his financial documents.
Trump had initially petitioned the high court in October to step in and prevent the IRS from handing over six years of tax records to the House Ways and Means Committee, after an appeals court determined that Congress could have access to the documents. In their filing, Trump's attorneys claimed that "as justification for seeking these papers — and these papers alone — the Committee has offered only an interest in studying the staffing and funding of the IRS's audit process for Presidents and Vice Presidents." In fact, they claimed, the true purpose of requesting the records has "everything to do with releasing the President's tax information to the public" — something Trump had repeatedly sworn to do himself, without following through on his promises.
As attorneys for the government pointed out in their statement to the court, any delay "would leave the Committee and Congress as a whole little or no time to complete their legislative work during this Congress, which is quickly approaching its end."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
While the Court had initially stayed the appeals court's decision while it considered the matter, Tuesday's decision effectively guarantees that House investigators will have no further legal barriers to accessing the documents. There were no noted dissensions from any of the Supreme Court justices.
-
How the FCC’s ‘equal time’ rule worksIn the Spotlight The law is at the heart of the Colbert-CBS conflict
-
What is the endgame in the DHS shutdown?Today’s Big Question Democrats want to rein in ICE’s immigration crackdown
-
‘Poor time management isn’t just an inconvenience’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Witkoff and Kushner tackle Ukraine, Iran in GenevaSpeed Read Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held negotiations aimed at securing a nuclear deal with Iran and an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine
-
Pentagon spokesperson forced out as DHS’s resignsSpeed Read Senior military adviser Col. David Butler was fired by Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin is resigning
-
Judge orders Washington slavery exhibit restoredSpeed Read The Trump administration took down displays about slavery at the President’s House Site in Philadelphia
-
Kurt Olsen: Trump’s ‘Stop the Steal’ lawyer playing a major White House roleIn the Spotlight Olsen reportedly has access to significant US intelligence
-
Hyatt chair joins growing list of Epstein files losersSpeed Read Thomas Pritzker stepped down as executive chair of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation over his ties with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell
-
Judge blocks Hegseth from punishing Kelly over videoSpeed Read Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed for the senator to be demoted over a video in which he reminds military officials they should refuse illegal orders
-
Trump’s EPA kills legal basis for federal climate policySpeed Read The government’s authority to regulate several planet-warming pollutants has been repealed
-
House votes to end Trump’s Canada tariffsSpeed Read Six Republicans joined with Democrats to repeal the president’s tariffs
