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Ex-US President Trump (January 2021 in Georgia)
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Almond Ngan / AFP
It is the next legal defeat for the former US President: Donald Trump's tax documents are to be published, at least in part.
A congressional committee controlled by the Democrats voted in favor of this on Tuesday evening.
All tax documents that were requested in court would be published, Democratic committee member Lloyd Doggett told CNN after the vote.
The publication could take a few more days, since sensitive data such as social security numbers would have to be blacked out.
These are Trump's tax records from 2015 to 2020.
A first report from the committee was published late Tuesday evening (local time).
It states, among other things, that Trump was not properly checked by the tax authority IRS.
It was noted that in Trump's four-year tenure, only one mandatory audit had been initiated and not a single one had been completed.
»Tax avoidance strategies pursued for decades«
The committee also noted, "Numerous reports have uncovered the former President's aggressive tax strategies and decades-long tax avoidance strategies through the complexities of managing his personal and business finances."
For years, Trump had resisted using legal means to release the documents to the Finance Committee – and finally failed in the Supreme Court: In November, after years of litigation, this cleared the way for Trump's tax returns to be released.
The IRS subsequently submitted the documents to the Tax Policy Committee (Ways and Means Committee).
On Tuesday, all Republicans in the committee voted against the publication – and all Democrats voted in favor.
Before the meeting, Republican committee member Kevin Brady criticized the Democrats for unleashing a "dangerous new political weapon" that could have dire consequences.
The broadcaster CNN quoted a spokesman for Trump, who also criticized the publication.
"If this injustice can happen to President Trump, it can happen to all Americans for no reason," he said, according to the broadcaster.
Trump had previously accused the members of the committee of pursuing purely political goals: they wanted to ensure that his tax returns were made public in order to harm him.
Trump has entered the 2024 presidential race for the Republicans.
Trump was the first president since Richard Nixon (1969 to 1974) to refuse to disclose his tax returns.
This led to speculation that he had something to hide.
Among other things, the Democrats wanted to check whether the real estate entrepreneur's documents revealed conflicts of interest and whether he had used questionable methods to save taxes.
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.
For Trump, Tuesday's decision is the second defeat this week: On Monday, the parliamentary committee of inquiry into the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 recommended that the Department of Justice initiate criminal proceedings against the ex-president on four counts.
The accusation is, among other things, inciting or assisting in an uprising.
aar/dpa