The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected former President Donald Trump‘s bid to reconsider a previous ruling that his tax returns must be handed over to a congressional committee.
The appeals court order will pave the way for the House Ways and Means Committee to receive Trump’s financial documents in one week if no further appeals interrupt the issuance of the legal judgment. However, the former president could still seek relief from the Supreme Court.
In August, a three-judge panel on the same appeals court ruled 3-0 to reject Trump’s efforts to shield his tax documents from the House committee, arguing the former president did not succeed in presenting claims that a former president’s records should not be turned over.
TRUMP TAX RETURNS MUST BE HANDED TO CONGRESS, COURT RULES
Trump’s legal counsel sought a rehearing on Aug. 18, followed by several response filings between the former president’s attorneys and counsel for the House committee over the course of nearly two months.
“Nobody believes that the Committee on Ways and Means requested six years’ worth of tax information about President Trump and his businesses to determine if the IRS’s Presidential Audit Program is adequately staffed or funded,” attorneys for Trump wrote in a Aug. 18 court filing. “The Committee’s Chairman and members made clear—both before and after the request—that they wanted the President’s tax returns so they could publicly expose them.”
Judge David Sentelle, who wrote the initial majority opinion on Aug. 9, said the House committee’s chairman, Richard Neal (D-MA), was within the scope of the inquiry when he requested such records from the former president.
Neal had requested six years of Trump’s tax returns and those of eight Trump-associated businesses, including his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, from the IRS in April 2019 under a law that allows disclosure of a person’s returns to a committee.
Neal said the former president “tried to delay the inevitable, but once again, the Court has affirmed the strength of our position,” according to a statement sent to CNN.
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“We’ve waited long enough – we must begin our oversight of the IRS’s mandatory presidential audit program as soon as possible,” Neal added.
The Washington Examiner contacted Neal and attorneys for Trump.
