A new setback for Donald Trump. A federal judge on Tuesday rejected the request of the former President of the United States, who wants to prevent the US Congress from accessing his tax returns.
In a 45-page opinion, Judge Trevor McFadden of the District of Columbia Federal Court, who had incidentally been appointed under his presidency, estimated that the Treasury Department could respond positively to the House of Representatives’ request for view Donald Trump’s tax returns.
The former president has systematically refused to provide these documents to Congress, believing that elected Democrats wanted to “expose” his financial information for political and electoral purposes. While American presidents are under no obligation to make their tax returns public, everyone in the White House since Richard Nixon has done so, apart from Mr. Trump.
Suspicions of fraud?
In 2019, when the Democrats took control of the House, they began to investigate Donald Trump’s finances, alerting them to his refusal to be transparent about tax returns. In particular, they heard testimony from his former lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, who said Mr. Trump bragged about inflating the value of his assets when it suited him and undervaluing them when it suited him. allowed him to reduce his taxes, reports The New York Times. If these facts are true, the Republican could be charged with fraud.
Last August, the Justice Department ordered the U.S. Treasury to provide the parliamentary committee with the billionaire’s six-year tax documents. Request that Donald Trump sought to block. Judge McFadden, who dismissed the request, now leaves the former president ten days to appeal, which his lawyers have already announced, according to CNN, promising to fight “tooth and nail” against the decision.
For the elected Democrat Richard Neal, president of the parliamentary commission wishing to consult the tax file of Donald Trump, the decision of the judge “is not a surprise”, and “the law is clearly on the side of the commission”, a- he declared. “It may not be good or wise to publish the statements, but it is the president’s right [de la commission, ndlr] to do so, ”said Justice McFadden in his decision.
