House Dems Vote to Make Trump Tax Returns Public

“No person is above the law, not even a president of the United States.”

*Trump at Pennsylvania rally. Image-PBS/Youtube video screengrab*

After an hourslong debate behind closed doors on Tuesday, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee voted 24-16 along party lines to publicly release six years of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns.

“The House Ways and Means Committee has righted a historic wrong.”

Democrats on the committee supported sending a panel report related to Trump’s tax documents from 2015 to 2020 to the full chamber, and published the document online after the Tuesday hearing.

Congressman Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), one of the panel members who voted to release the information, told NBC News that “the actual returns themselves will also be transmitted to the full House and become public, but I was told it will take a few days to a week in order to redact some info that needs to be redacted.”

Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of Public Citizen, said that “the committee did right by the American people tonight in its vote to release Trump’s tax returns.”

“Advocates and the public called on Trump to release his returns while he was running for president and throughout his time in office. Better late than never,” she added. “The committee should release these documents as quickly as possible, before the start of the next Congress. All future presidents and nominees should continue to disclose their tax returns to the American people.”

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) noted after the vote that the watchdog group spent years highlighting how Trump was the first president since former President Richard Nixon not to release his tax returns.

“Accountability comes for everybody,” CREW tweeted. “Today is a good day.”

The House Ways and Means Committee has righted a historic wrong. The American people should always be able to see a president’s tax returns for accountability, but particularly where a president retains a business that could create conflicts of interest.https://t.co/w3kCEbDh5f

— Noah Bookbinder (@NoahBookbinder) December 21, 2022

Americans for Tax Fairness executive director Frank Clemente had urged the panel to release the records to “the American people, the final arbiters of what is acceptable behavior by our elected leaders,” arguing Tuesday that “since Trump is running again for president, it’s especially important for voters to know whether he complies with tax law and to learn about his complex finances and how they interact with potential public duties.”

“Tax fairness starts at the top: If the president is not paying his fair share or is otherwise abusing the tax laws, the American people have the right to know,” Clemente continued, adding that the committee’s chair, Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), and other Democrats “are to be congratulated for their dogged pursuit of this important information.”

Stand Up America president and founder Sean Eldridge also praised the panel members who pushed to make the information public, saying that “with today’s vote, Chairman Neal and Ways and Means Committee Democrats have delivered the transparency that the American people deserve from anyone who hopes to occupy the Oval Office.”

Boyle said in a statement that “this is one of the most important votes I will ever cast as a member of Congress, and I stand by it 100%. I voted to reinforce this critical principle: No person is above the law, not even a president of the United States.”