D.C. Circuit Lets House Ways & Means See Trump’s Tax Returns

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Tuesday that the Democrat-controlled House Ways & Means Committee, which is supposed to write tax legislation, can see former President Trump’s private tax returns.

As Politico noted, the three-judge panel was unanimous, though one judge issued a concurring opinion expressing concern about separation-of-powers issues. The Constitution does not allow the legislature to perform law enforcement functions; investigations must relate to a legislative purpose.

Democrats have long hoped to see Trump’s tax returns, speculating that he might have something to hide, though they failed to explain why the IRS would not have prosecuted him, if so. The release of a candidate’s tax returns is an unofficial standard for transparency in presidential elections — though Democrats falsely claimed 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney had paid no taxes for ten years, even after he released some tax information.

During the 2016 election, Trump said that he could not release his tax returns, because he was under audit by the IRS. There is no law preventing the release of tax returns by a taxpayer under audit — though Trump was, in fact, under a lengthy IRS audit.

In 2017, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow proudly announced that she had obtained one year of Trump’s tax returns, for 2005, though she was mocked when the documents showed that he had paid $38 million in federal taxes on $150 million in income.

In 2020, the New York Times obtained Trump’s tax returns and reported that he paid closed to no net federal income taxes in many years — though that was because he could claim losses that offset his income.

The news of the D.C. Circuit’s decision came a day after FBI agents raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, without explanation.

Trump is expected to appeal the decision to release his tax returns.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.