In the legal dispute over the release of tax documents, former US President Donald Trump is now demanding the country’s Supreme Court. Trump’s lawyers filed an urgent request with the Washington Supreme Court to initially prevent the IRS from releasing the documents.
The Washington Court of Appeals last week cleared the way for Trump’s tax records to be turned over to a House committee starting Thursday. Trump has already resisted this on fewer occasions in recent years.
And the Treasury Department of the administration of Joe Biden, Trump’s successor, instructed the IRS last year to turn over the documents to the committee. In contradiction to US political customs, real estate entrepreneur Trump has not made his tax return public either as a presidential candidate or after his transition to the White House. To this day it tries to prevent detection. So critics suspect he has something to hide. On the other hand, Trump has argued that the Democratic-controlled committee wants to see his tax records for political reasons.
The former president had asked the Washington Court of Appeals to halt the release of the documents. The court had already rejected Trump’s request in August, confirming a lower court’s decision. The former president then requested a re-examination, which was also denied last week. That left him to go to the Supreme Court.
On November 8th, a new House of Representatives will be elected in the United States. If Republicans win a majority in the House of Representatives, Trump may hope that the committee, under new leadership, will refrain from asking for documents. The new Congress will convene in early January 2023.
Trump is currently experiencing a number of legal problems – including the transfer of classified government documents to his private property after leaving the White House.
