Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee used an arcane law, well over 100 years old that permits the Chairman Committee, Chair Richard Neal (D-Mass.), to review the personal tax filings of any American, in order to obtain Donald Trump’s personal tax filings from the IRS.
However, even in the hands of the committee, strict privacy laws still applied to the tax filings unless the committee interceded and voted to make them public. That’s exactly what the Democrats in the committee did today with a party-line vote.
The Democrats have set a new precedent in congress for any party in power to demand the tax filings of any individual American and then release them to the public. When the Republicans take control of the committee in January 2023, will they demand the Tax returns of Barack Obama, or Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, or Mark Zuckerberg, or Chuck Schumer, or Jeffrey Epstein, or Nancy & Paul Pelosi and then make them public?
WASHINGTON DC – House Democrats said they will release several years worth of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns in the coming days after a party-line vote Tuesday night to make the long-hidden filings public.
Lawmakers said it would take some time to first redact sensitive information from the documents, such as Trump’s Social Security number and address.
[…] Neal had sued for the filings under an arcane law allowing the heads of Congress’s tax committees to examine anyone’s returns.
Even once they were in Democrats’ possession, they continued to be protected by strict privacy laws. Lawmakers could get around that by voting to make them public, something that happened Tuesday evening in Neal’s committee, where lawmakers voted 24-16, along party lines, to release them. (read more)
START HERE ⇓ Make them live up to their own rules.
