Not immediately
With only four or five weeks to do anything with them, the House Dems finally have Trump’s tax returns.
Sort of.
The supreme court ordered the release of six years of returns last Tuesday, rejecting Trump’s plea to stop the treasury from acting.
On Wednesday, the release of the tax returns was first reported by CNN. According to the network, which cited an unnamed aide to the Democratic committee chair, Richard Neal, Democrats on the panel were due to be briefed on Thursday on the “legal ramifications on section of the tax law that … Neal used to request Trump’s tax returns” but would not immediately see the returns.
Well let’s do all this as slowly as possible so that nothing will happen before the Republicans take over the House.
It had long been customary, though not required, for major party candidates to release their returns. But Trump was the first major-party presidential candidate in four decades not to release his tax returns, as he sought to keep secret the details of his wealth and the activities of his real estate company, the Trump Organization.
Which is one of many reasons it’s not a cute or fun idea to make a corrupt real estate profiteer a head of state. Crooks have the wrong kinds of motivation for the job.
I’m not familiar with the statute in question, but my assumption is that the committee members are being briefed on the extent to which they can reveal the contents of Trump’s tax returns. If there are some restrictions, then you wouldn’t want to just hand them out to the committee, and then some member posts them on the internet or hands them to a reporter and now they’ve put themselves in legal jeopardy and created a political scandal.
This morning one of the resident experts at Jerry Coyne’s place noted that the Senate Finance Committee is also entitled to examine Trump’s tax returns, and the since the Senate will be safely controlled by the Democrats for the next two years, All May Indeed Be Revealed!
Aha!
Screechy is almost certainly right. Back when Congress first sought the returns I heard analysis from someone (Josh Barro?) that Congress had to have a ‘legislative purpose’. Trump has certainly publicly maintained that it was a witch hunt rather than any legitimate purpose. I suspect events of the last six years increase the scope for investigation and possible information release.