Trump Asks Supreme Court To Stop Congress From Accessing His Tax Returns

Topline

Former President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to stop a House committee from viewing his tax returns in a Monday afternoon court filing, a last-resort attempt to block Congress from receiving documents that could shine a light into Trump’s oft-discussed business dealings.

House Democrats may soon have access to Donald Trump’s tax returns.

AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

A federal appeals court ruled in August the Democrat-controlled House Committee on Ways and Means could access Trump’s returns and denied his plea to rehear the case last week.

If his returns are released, Trump and his entities would face “irreparable harm on two fronts: the mooting of their legal claims and the disclosure of their confidential information,” Cameron T. Norris, the lawyer representing Trump in the case, argued in the filing.

The committee requested the returns as part of a review into the Internal Revenue Service’s auditing program for presidents and vice presidents, but Trump’s legal team argues members of Congress are actually planning to publicly release his tax records.

Norris and the Ways and Means Committee did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment.

Key Background

The issue of Trump’s tax returns came to light leading up to the 2016 election, when Trump became the first Democratic or Republican presidential nominee in 40 years not to disclose their returns, a particularly pressing issue given his long history of questionable business dealings. Democrats have lobbied for Trump’s returns to go public for years before a Trump-appointed federal judge ruled the Treasury Department could turn over the returns to Congress last year, a decision Trump appealed. The Department of Justice reignited the Trump returns issue when it said last July the Treasury Department should release the records to Congress, reversing the Trump Administration’s Justice Department’s 2019 recommendation for the IRS not to comply with the request.

Surprising Fact

The New York Times reported in 2020 Trump paid $750 in federal income tax in 2016 and 2017.

Forbes Valuation

We estimate Trump is worth $3.2 billion. A majority of Trump’s fortune comes from his portfolio of commercial real estate, golf courses and resorts, including $880 million worth of New York City real estate.

Tangent

Norris appeared before the Supreme Court Monday afternoon, representing the group Students for Fair Admissions arguing against affirmative action policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.