Supreme Court Allows House Democrats to Obtain Trump’s Tax Returns
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling in the House impeachment hearings on Friday, it was reported by NBC News on Saturday night that the House may be able to obtain the president’s tax returns from his accounting firm Mazars USA.
The Hill reported that the court’s ruling on Friday “cites section 6103(h) of the Internal Revenue Code — a provision that states there is no law or rule that prohibits the IRS from disclosing the returns and financial records of any taxpayer who files a return.”
Mazars had previously been ordered to turn over the president’s tax returns to House Democrats through July 25 in an effort to show that Trump engaged in obstruction of justice during the impeachment inquiry.
As the New York Times wrote: “The case may be the first of its kind since the IRS disclosed a record number of returns in last year’s final audit.”
The ruling also applies to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and other IRS officials as they were also ordered to turn over the president’s tax returns in an effort to show that Trump engaged in a “quid pro quo” with Ukraine by demanding an investigation into alleged corruption among the president’s political rivals to benefit the incoming administration.
The decision is likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court and it’s now up to the justices to weigh in on the issue.
However, if the Trump administration does appeal the high court’s ruling, several Republicans will have to re-evaluate their position in light of the court’s latest decision.
Former President Obama was the first president to refuse to release his tax returns in 2010, and he had to be persuaded by his own administration to release them by the Obama administration’s Inspector General after he left office. Former President George W. Bush had also resisted on the issue, but agreed to release his tax returns in 2014.
If the Supreme Court rules that the House can obtain Trump’s tax returns from Mazars, it would be yet another blow to the Republican claim that they are being unfairly
