A U.S. House committee voted on Tuesday to release partially redacted tax returns for former President Donald Trump, which could lead to unwanted scrutiny for the Republican as he mounts another White House bid.
Rep. Lloyd Doggett told CNN that the House Ways and Means Committee voted to release a summary of Trump’s tax returns between 2015 and 2021, the years he ran for president and served in the White House.
Kevin Brady, the panel’s top Republican, told reporters that some of those returns were still being audited by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, so it was unclear how much tax Trump owed.
The material will likely be released in the coming days after sensitive information is blacked out, committee members said.
Other details were not immediately available.
Trump, unlike previous presidential candidates, refused to make his tax returns public as he tried to keep secret details of his wealth and the activities of his real estate company, The Trump Organization, and fought against Democrats’ efforts to gain access to them.
The law does not require candidates to make their tax returns public, but previous presidential hopefuls from both parties have done so voluntarily for several decades.
Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee have said they need to see those records to assess whether the Internal Revenue Service is properly auditing presidential tax returns, and to assess whether new legislation is necessary.
Another House committee on Monday called on federal prosecutors to prosecute Trump for provoking the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. Republicans are expected to dissolve or redirect that panel when they take control of the House.
Trump, who was president from 2017 to 2021, declared heavy losses from his business ventures over several years to offset hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, according to media reports and trial testimony about his finances. That allowed him to pay very little tax.
The Trump Organization was convicted Dec. 6 in New York of carrying out a 15-year criminal scheme to defraud tax authorities. The company faces fines of up to $1.6 million, though Trump is not personally responsible. Trump has said the case is politically motivated and the company plans to appeal.
He is also facing another fraud lawsuit in New York that accuses him of artificially inflating the value of his assets.
During his presidency, he faced constant questions about conflicts of interest, as foreign dignitaries and GOP officials spent money at his luxury hotels.
