Congress has been working for years to obtain Donald Trump's tax information, but he has been blocking the effort at every turn in court. In a recent victory for Democrats, the Court of Appeals ruled that the law gives the House Ways and Means Committee the right to see the files. Trump then took it to the Supreme Court, which starts another delay clock.
While some of those files have been obtained by the House since their effort began in July 2019, they haven't obtained all of them. It was then renewed in Dec. 2021. Trump has been trying to run out the clock, hoping that the Republicans would take over and the probe would end.
Wednesday evening, Republicans won the last seat that they needed to take over the House. According to CNBC, they're moving back to protecting Donald Trump, as he looks to run for president for the third time.
The three Republicans vying for the chairmanship, Reps. Jason Smith (R-MO), Vern Buchanan (R-MI) and Adrian Smith (R-NE) all confirmed they would end the fight to protect the former president.
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The lame-duck session for Congress is moving forward, but the Supreme Court approved a last-minute stay to hold off handing over the taxes until a decision could be made on whether to force the documents to be handed over. The Court could decide to lift the stay at any moment or to extend it. If they lif it, the Treasury Department could hand over the returns in the final weeks of Congress, before the GOP takes over.
Buchanan, the current No. 2 on the committee said in a statement that he would drop the request.
“Washington should not be in the business of using the IRS as a political tool,” he told CNBC.“This would establish a dangerous precedent that would make it easier for Congress to target average Americans."
Ironically, his statement comes after a New York Times report revealing Trump used the IRS as a political tool to go after his enemies. The New York Times revealed this summer that two of Trump's foes, James Comey and Andrew McCabe, were targeted by the IRS with the most invasive audit available. Both turned up nothing untoward.
This weekend, former Trump chief of staff, retired Gen. John Kelly, confirmed to the Times that there were many requests by Trump to use the power of the IRS and the Justice Department to go after his political adversaries. He named not only Comey and McCabe but also Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, John Brennan, Hillary Clinton and Jeff Bezos.
Earlier this week, the House Reform and Oversight Committee filed a request by the National Archives for information regarding some details about Trump's White House that coincided with expensive stays in his DC hotel. According to documents obtained by the committee from the hotel, Trump scored over $750,000 from foreign officials and their lobbyists at a time they were doing diplomacy and negotiations with the White House.
