U.S. Justice Department says IRS must turn over Trump tax files to Congress

The U.S. Justice Department says the Treasury Department must provide former president Donald Trump’s tax returns to the House of Representatives ways and means committee, apparently ending a long legal showdown over the records.

During the Trump administration, then-Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said he wouldn’t turn over the tax returns because he concluded they were being sought by Democrats who control the House of Representatives for partisan reasons.

The committee sued for the records under a U.S. federal law that says the Internal Revenue Service “shall furnish” the returns of any taxpayer to a handful of top lawmakers. The committee said it needed Mr. Trump’s taxes for an investigation into whether he complied with tax law.

In a memo dated Friday, Justice’s office of legal counsel said the committee chairman “has invoked sufficient reasons for requesting the former president’s tax information” and that under federal law, “Treasury must furnish the information to the committee.”

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. already has obtained copies of Mr. Trump’s personal and business tax records as part of an ongoing criminal investigation. Mr. Trump tried to prevent his accountants from handing over the documents, taking the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices rejected Mr. Trump’s argument that he had broad immunity as president.

The House committee had sued the Trump administration in federal court Tuesday for access to the Trump tax returns, setting up the legal showdown over the records.

The lawsuit is the culmination of a long-running fight between Democrats and Mr. Trump over the returns, dating back to the 2016 campaign, when Mr. Trump claimed that he could not release them due to an IRS audit. The records hold the promise of information that Mr. Trump has carefully guarded from public view, including about his business entanglements, relationships with foreign creditors and governments, and the value of his assets.

When the committee originally demanded six years of tax records while Mr. Trump was in office, Mr. Mnuchin refused, saying the Treasury Department was “not authorized to disclose the requested returns and return information.” The Justice Department at the time backed Mr. Mnuchin’s position, saying in a legal opinion that the request lacked a legitimate legislative purpose and was an “unprecedented” use of congressional authority.

The argument was the same one Mr. Trump used in refusing other demands from Congress for financial records from accountants and banks Mr. Trump and his family had done business with. Lawsuits over those records were filed in federal courts in Washington and New York, and Mr. Trump lost in those lawsuits’ opening rounds.

In its lawsuit Tuesday, the committee said the previous administration had refused to turn over the documents “in order to shield president Trump’s tax return information from congressional scrutiny.” The committee said it’s not required to explain to the Treasury Department its reasons for seeking the tax return information but that in this case the committee’s need is “evident.”