Trouble for Donald Trump: DOJ orders IRS to hand over Trump’s tax returns to Congress

Last updated on August 2nd, 2021 at 06:44 am

 Yet another trouble in Trump’s paradise. Since former President Donald Trump has left the office, his old deeds are coming back to bite him. His entire presidency was highlighted with allegations and also him admitting to the fact that he has been evading taxes. His defense was pretty solid and logical for him – “all successful businessmen do that” But now he can’t escape that. On Friday, the US Department of Justice ordered the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) to hand over Trump’s tax returns to House committee. DOJ cited that House panel has “invoked sufficient reasons” for requesting the returns.

This is second major blow to Donald Trump in matter of hours. A DOJ memo released shows that the former president had pressured top officials to label the 2020 Presidential Election falsely as corrupt in a bid to overturn his election defeat and then “leave the rest to me”. The released memos are sufficient to acknowledge that there was no corruption or illegal means to the results of election that rendered Joe Biden as the next president of USA.

Nancy Pelosi celebrates the move by DOJ

Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker who is known to challenge Trump quite vividly, has applauded orders by DOJ to IRS. “Today, the Biden administration has delivered a victory for the rule of law, as it respects the public interest by complying with Chairman [Richard] Neal’s request for Donald Trump’s tax returns,” Pelosi said in a statement.

“Access to former President Trump’s tax returns is a matter of national security. The American people deserve to know the facts of his troubling conflicts of interest and undermining of our security and democracy as president.”

Donald Trump and his tax returns secrecy

It is a tradition in US that all candidates running for President disclose their tax returns, though not required by law. But Donald Trump kept his returns out of open sight citing they were under IRS audit when he was running for the office in 2016. But he still did not release them during his four years tenure in the White House.

In 2018 when Democrats took control of the House, the round ups for Trump’s tax returns records came to a priority as they sought to retrieve the records. This was while Robert Mueller investigation opened of links between Trump and Moscow, and Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The memo released by DOJ on Friday said that Neal, the Massachusetts congressman who is chair of the ways and means committee, had “invoked sufficient reasons for requesting the former president’s tax information”. The 39 page memo was signed by Dawn Johnsen, who is acting head of DOJ Office of Legal Council (OLC).