Congress gains insight: Ministry releases Trump's tax documents

For years he resisted the publication of his tax documents – now ex-President Trump has to put up with the fact that Congress can examine the documents. It is still unclear whether and when the general public will have access to the documents.

According to media reports, the US Treasury Department is making the tax documents of former President Donald Trump available to a congressional committee. “The Treasury Department has complied with last week’s court decision,” US media quoted a ministry spokesman as saying. Trump had refused to use legal means to release the documents for years – and finally failed in the country’s Supreme Court last week.

The Supreme Court had dismissed a request by its attorneys to stop the transmission of tax documents to the Democratic-led Treasury Committee in the House of Representatives. Contrary to usual practice in the United States, real estate entrepreneur Trump did not make his tax returns public either as a presidential candidate or after moving into the White House. Critics therefore suspect that the Republican has something to hide.

Among other things, the Democrats want to check whether the documents reveal conflicts of interest on the part of the entrepreneur and whether he has used questionable methods to save taxes. According to the reports, the documents are not expected to be released to the public immediately. It also remains unclear whether the members of the committee have already been able to view the documents.

For the committee, the Supreme Court’s decision was a last-minute success: With Republicans winning the US midterm elections and set to rule the House of Representatives by early January, the Democratic-led body has little time left, a little to align in the matter.

Trump is currently involved in various legal disputes – including because of taking secret government documents to his private estate after leaving the White House. Nevertheless, just two weeks ago, Trump announced that he intends to run again as the Republican presidential candidate in the 2024 election.