House committee obtains Trump's federal tax returns after SCOTUS clears way

The Internal Revenue Service has turned six years of federal income tax returns of former President Donald Trump over to the House Ways and Means Committee, after a recent Supreme Court ruling cleared the way.

"Treasury has complied with last week's court decision," a Treasury Department spokesperson said Wednesday.

Last week, the court's justices rejected Trump's effort to block the records from the committee, which has been asking to see them since 2019. The unsigned court order had no noted dissents.

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The Ways and Means Committee has wanted the tax documents from both Trump and eight of his business entities "to determine whether Trump and his companies are complying with tax laws, and to oversee whether the IRS audit of the former president was conducted 'fully and appropriately,'" CBS News summarizes.

The committee will not unilaterally publicly disclose the documents, considering it is a felony for federal employees (as members of Congress are classified) to disclose the contents of a tax return, CNBC adds.

Committee Chair Richard Neal (D-Mass.) said the Democratic caucus will discuss next steps together, though that meeting has yet to be scheduled, per CNN.

Trump has kept his taxes secret since his initial 2016 campaign, when he broke with presidential election norms and declined to publicly disclose his returns. The documents stayed private once he was elected, CNN adds.