Donald Trump highlighted his concealed tax documents through his social media platform Wednesday night, sandwiched between a series of unrelated tweets about immigration, The Washington Post, TikTok, and climate change. Tax returns don’t teach you anything, but releasing them if they aren’t yours is against the law, the former president wrote.
There isn’t much of a mystery about what inspired the Republican’s remark. Late last week, NBC News reported:
On Capitol Hill, the Jan. 6 committee is undoubtedly receiving a lot of attention right now. The committee will convene this afternoon and is expected to provide some information concerning potential criminal referrals to the Justice Department.
However, the former president has further worried about the departing Democratic majority in the House. On the other hand, Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee may soon thwart Trump’s efforts at concealment after he spent the greater part of seven years doing so.
Let’s briefly recap some of the more recent developments for anyone who may find it helpful.
Only a few congressional leaders are now allowed by law to get individual tax returns from the Treasury Department. Democratic Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal of Massachusetts chose to utilize this authority in April 2019 and ordered Treasury Department representatives to provide Trump’s tax returns.
As veteran readers may remember, no administration has ever refused a legislator access to tax returns under this provision since the legislation was developed in the aftermath of the Teapot Dome incident in the 1920s. However, the Trump administration resisted, which led to a protracted court battle.
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Trump’s last-ditch appeal, officially putting an end to the conflict. Soon after, the committee with authority over tax regulations moved back to the Treasury Department to request more than six years’ worth of tax data from the former president and several of his private businesses.
Now that the files are in their possession, the congressional subcommittee will meet tomorrow to decide what, if anything, to do with them before the Republicans reclaim control of the House in two weeks.
All of this takes us back to Trump’s tweet from last night on social media. The documents’ publication appeared to worry the former president quite a bit, and with good reason: The meeting tomorrow might result in a vote on whether to make public the documents that Trump has fought obstinately for years to keep private. It’s also conceivable that committee members may think about publishing a report from the panel that summarizes the conclusions from the tax documents and draws attention to contentious points.
The activities of the Jan. 6 committee will naturally overlap with all of this, indicating the former president won’t likely have a very nice week.
Visit MSNBC live streaming to see all the news.
