The Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel instructed the Internal Revenue Service to provide Congress with the tax returns of former President Donald Trump.
The opinion explains that the executive branch trusts that Congress has a “legitimate legislative purpose” in requesting the former Commander-in-Chief’s taxes:
In assessing whether requested information could serve a legitimate legislative purpose, the Executive Branch must give due weight to Congress’s status as a co-equal branch of government. Like courts, therefore, Executive Branch officials must apply a presumption that Legislative Branch officials act in good faith and in furtherance of legitimate objectives.
When one of the congressional tax committees requests tax information pursuant to section 6103(f)(1), and has invoked facially valid reasons for its request, the Executive Branch should conclude that the request lacks a legitimate legislative purpose only in exceptional circumstances. The Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has invoked sufficient reasons for requesting the former President’s tax information. Under section 6103(f)(1), Treasury must furnish the information to the Committee.
CNBC reports that the opinion “is a reversal of an opinion by the same office, during the Trump administration, which had backed the IRS’ refusal to give the committee Trump’s returns.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) thanked Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Richie Neal (D-MA) for “delivering a victory for the rule of law.”
“As Speaker, on behalf of the House of Representatives, I applaud Chairman Neal for his dignified pursuit of the truth and the Biden Administration Department of Justice for its respect for the law,” she said in a statement. “Access to former President Trump’s tax returns is a matter of national security. The American people deserve to know the facts of his troubling conflicts of interest and undermining of our security and democracy as president.”
For the past several years, Democrats’ requests to gain access to President Trump’s tax returns have slowly moved through the American court system. In February, the Supreme Court denied President Trump’s request to delay compliance to a subpoena from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.
Trump characterized Vance’s investigation as part of “the greatest political witch hunt in the history of our country,” suggesting that Democrats in New York were failing to tackle violent crime to denigrating an opponent.
“That’s fascism, not justice — and that is exactly what they are trying to do with respect to me, except that the people of our country won’t stand for it,” Trump said at the time.
In June, however, Vance reportedly declined to levy any criminal charges against President Trump.