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Ex-US President Donald Trump: Application rejected by the Supreme Court
Photo: Andrew Harnik / dpa
The US Supreme Court has cleared the way for ex-President Donald Trump to release tax documents to Congress.
The Supreme Court in Washington on Tuesday rejected a request by the 76-year-old Republican to block the documents from being handed over.
This means that the US tax authority IRS can hand over six years of Trump's tax documents to the committee responsible for tax policy in the House of Representatives.
A federal appeals court had already decided this in October.
Trump then went to the Supreme Court, where he was initially granted a stay.
Now the Supreme Court, which has moved to the right in recent years, rejected Trump's request to block the transfer of tax documents.
The decision consists of only two sentences and was not justified by the constitutional judges.
The House of Representatives committee responsible for tax policy - in English Ways and Means Committee - has been trying to get past Trump's tax returns since 2019.
The committee, controlled by President Joe Biden's Democrats, argues that it needs the documents to understand how well tax authorities can scrutinize presidential finances.
Only Trump and Nixon did not disclose tax returns
Trump, who announced a new presidential bid for 2024 a week ago, accuses MPs of pursuing purely political goals.
They wanted to make sure that his tax returns were made public.
Trump was the first president since Richard Nixon (1969 to 1974) to refuse to disclose his tax returns.
This led to speculation that the real estate entrepreneur had something to hide.
During the 2020 campaign, The New York Times reported that Trump paid no federal income tax in 11 of the 18 years between 2000 and 2017 – and only $750 each in 2016 and 2017.
The Supreme Court's decision came two weeks after the Nov. 8 midterm elections, in which Republicans won a narrow majority in the House of Representatives.
Trump's party will take control of the Chamber of Congress and its committees in January.
jso/AFP