The House Ways and Means Committee voted Tuesday evening to publicly release former President Donald Trump’s tax returns.
The House panel voted 24 to 16 to publicly release Trump’s tax returns, according to The New York Times.
The House panel reportedly voted along party lines to release the report on Trump’s tax returns, according to The Associated Press.
The House Ways and Means Committee released two reports Tuesday evening the report on the Internal Revenue Service’s Mandatory Audit Program from 2017 to 2020 and the summary report on Trump’s tax returns that goes over the committee’s review from 2015 to 2020, according to CNN.
The House Ways and Means Committee will make Trump’s tax returns public once they are redacted for personal information, according to CNN.
Rep. Kevin Brady, Republican of Texas and ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee, said that the report will have Trump’s tax returns for the last six years, which will include returns from eight businesses that are affiliated as well as audit notes, according to the NYT. Brady also said that not all of the audits are complete.
Committee Chairman Richard Neal, Democrat of Massachusetts said that the supporting materials will also be released with the report, according to the AP.
The belief is that the report will provide a bigger look into Trump’s personal and business finances, which will include how much he paid in taxes and what income came from operations overseas, according to the AP. It will also prove if he really is a multibillionaire as he has suggested.
According to the AP, the report comes after a yearlong battle that led to the Supreme Court clearing the way for the Treasury Department to send the tax returns to Congress last month.
The committee met Tuesday behind closed doors that started at 3 p.m. The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post reported.
The meeting comes after the Supreme Court last month allowed the committee access to six years of the former president’s tax records following a yearslong court battle for the records.
Attorneys for Trump had argued that the committee was seeking the tax records for purely political reasons and without any legitimate legislative interest. However, lower courts ruled that the committee had broad authority to obtain tax records.
Brady on Saturday cautioned that releasing Trump’s tax records “jeopardizes the privacy of every American.” He urged Democrats to vote against releasing the records.
Trump broke a 40-year tradition when he declined to release his tax returns during the 2016 presidential election. He has consistently resisted efforts to make the records public, claiming while he was in office that he was under audit by the IRS and barred from releasing his tax returns.
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