Monitoring Desk
WASHINGTON: The United States House of Representatives committee issued six years of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns record to the public on Friday in an extraordinary move only days before Republicans are due to take control of the chamber.
Release of Trump’s redacted tax returns for 2015 through 2020 caps a nearly four-year battle between the former Republican president and Democratic lawmakers settled just last month by the US Supreme Court.
It is the latest blow for Donald Trump, 76, who was impeached twice by the Democratic-led House of Representatives only to be acquitted two times by the US Senate. Trump now faces several legal woes as he mounts a 2024 reelection attempt.
US House committee investigation
Earlier this month, the House committee probing January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by Donald Trump’s supporters asked federal prosecutors to charge him with 4 crimes, including insurrection and obstruction, for his role in the deadly Capitol riot.
“The US Supreme Court should have never approved it, the Democrats should have never done it, and it is going to lead to horrible things for several people,” Trump said in a statement of the release Friday. “The radical, left Democrats have weaponized everything; however, remember, that is a dangerous two-way street!”
Chairman of House Ways and Means Committee Richard Neal had requested the tax returns in 2019, arguing that Congress needed them to ascertain if legislation on presidential tax returns was required.
Republicans said the action could lead to the political victimization of individual tax returns and warned that Democratic party members who take over the committee next month would face pressure to pursue a similar path against high-profile Democratic leaders.
