Committee Chair Rep. Richard Neal (D-Massachusetts) and Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) at the House Ways and Means Committee business meeting on Capitol Hill on December 20, 2022 in Washington, D.C. state) speaks.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images News | Getty Images
of House Ways and Means Committee On Tuesday night, former President Donald Trump ran for the White House and voted to release a redacted version of the federal income tax returns he filed while he was on the job.
The chairman of the committee, Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass), said it took “several days” to remove some classified information before announcing the Trump return and the return of eight Trump-related companies. ‘ said it would take.
“But I believe it’s only a few days,” said Neil.
Records set for release contain IRS audit notes on returns.
related 29 page reportTrump’s tax information was released late Tuesday night.
A 24-16 vote by the Democratic-controlled committee approved the report and its release, in line with party policy. Before the vote, the panel spent more than four hours in an executive session debating whether and how to release tax returns.
The commission received tax records from 2015 to 2020 last month from the Internal Revenue Service after a three-year legal battle over Trump’s opposition.
Neal previously said the records would be used to evaluate how the Internal Revenue Service audits a sitting president’s tax returns each year.
As a candidate and as president, Trump broke decades of political precedent by refusing to release his tax returns to the public.
The New York Times reported in 2020 A billionaire real estate businessman paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and the same paltry amount the next year. In 11 of 18 years, I paid no income tax at all.
Tuesday’s vote was the latest in a string of negative developments for Trump, who announced last month that he would seek the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election.
On Monday, a select panel of the House of Representatives called Trump to the Justice Department for possible criminal investigations and indictments over his efforts to reverse his 2020 presidential election loss to President Joe Biden. It was unanimously approved to refer to the A list of some state electoral colleges.
After Tuesday’s vote, Neal said lawmakers have two days to submit supplemental information or objections to the panel’s report on returns.
“After a lengthy process, this was not punitive, it was not malicious, and there were no leaks from the committee,” Neil said. “We followed the law carefully. ”
The chair also said the commission’s “staff are empowered to make technical corrections to reports and redact sensitive personally identifiable information such as social security numbers, addresses, personal identification numbers and banking information. ” he said.
Neal advised members of Congress to follow the speech and debate clauses of the First Amendment when discussing Trump’s return with the public.
The clause protects lawmakers from being sued or arrested for speaking out during legislative action, but it’s not necessarily political.
“Today our committee voted to support sunshine and democracy,” Rep. Bill Paskrel, a New Jersey Democrat who chairs the panel’s subcommittee on oversight, said in a statement. said in
“For six years, we’ve been fighting to get these documents out, because Americans deserve to know if their chief executive is in danger,” Neal said. , today’s victory is greater than one crooked man or one party. [the] The idea that no one is above the law. ”
Police escorts delivered documents presumed to be Trump’s tax returns shortly before the hearings began at 3 p.m.
Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, a Republican on the committee, warned against releasing the filings before Tuesday’s hearing.
“To be clear, our concern is not whether the president traditionally should have released the tax returns, nor the accuracy of the tax returns,” Brady told reporters. said. “That’s for the IRS and taxpayers to decide.”
“Our concern is that, if this commission’s actions are taken, it will unleash a dangerous new political weapon that goes far beyond the former president and will end the decades of average Americans that have existed since the Watergate Reforms.” It sets a terrifying precedent for overturning privacy protections across the board.
The documents arrive as the House Ways and Means Committee holds hearings on tax returns from former President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022.
Andrew Harnick | AP
The commission’s first attempt to obtain Trump’s tax returns from the IRS was denied by the Treasury Department in 2019. The Treasury Department, which oversees the IRS, said the request had no valid legal basis.
The Treasury Department dropped its opposition to earnings disclosure after Democrat Biden took office.
Trump sued to prevent their release.
But he lost that effort at both the federal district court and appeals court levels. dismissed his last-minute bid to stop him from doing so.
Tuesday’s hearing by the Ways and Means Committee comes less than a month after Republicans take control of the House. Republican lawmakers are expected to void further investigations by the committee into Trump’s tax returns.
“It became clear today that the release of President Trump’s private tax returns had nothing to do with the stated purpose of overhauling the IRS’ presidential audit process,” Brady said after the vote. rice field.
