Donald Trump’s request to keep tax returns from Congress denied by appeals court

A federal appeals court rejected former President Donald Trump’s latest effort to block the release of his tax returns to Congress.

Trump can still appeal the case to the Supreme Court. 

The House Ways and Means Committee first requested six years of Trump’s tax returns in 2019, but then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin denied the effort. 

After President Biden was elected, the Department of Justice said in July 2021 that Congress should be able to review the records, which Trump appealed. 

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U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden ruled last December that the Treasury Department should turn the tax returns over to the congressional committee, and a three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with that ruling in August. 

The full bench of the D.C. Circuit Court denied Trump’s request to stop the release on Thursday. 

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., said that Trump has “tried to delay the inevitable.” 

“We’ve waited long enough—we must begin our oversight of the IRS’s mandatory presidential audit program as soon as possible,” Neal said in a statement. 

A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday evening.