The decision puts an apparent end in sight to the yearslong battle over the records.
The Justice Department on Friday said the Treasury Department must hand over former President Trump’s to the Ways and Means Committee, putting an apparent end in sight to the yearslong battle over the records. In the 39-page opinion, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel found the committee “has invoked sufficient reasons for requesting the former President’s tax information,” adding that “the statute at issue here is unambiguous.” The decision is a reversal to a 2019 opinion from the same office, which was under the direction of the Trump administration. The office says the previous decision failed to account that Congress is a co-equal branch to the executive and instead heavily focused on the belief the request was “disingenuous.” The office departed from the previous administration, saying it “failed to afford the Committee the respect due to a coordinate branch of government.” In 2016, Mr. Trump refused to publicly release his tax returns to Congress.
