Former President Donald Trump has lost an appeal to keep six years of his income tax returns shielded from the House Ways and Means Committee, amid a longstanding battle between the Democrat-led House and Trump over his financial records.
The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Thursday denied Trump’s request to rehear his appeal of McFadden’s decision. The appeals court’s decision had no noted dissents.
The overall lawsuit stems from a request from Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), first made in 2019 and resubmitted in 2021 after President Joe Biden took office, seeking six years of Trump’s tax returns, starting the year before Trump took office.
Trump argued at the time that the House Ways and Means Committee, led by Neal, did not have a legitimate legislative purpose for pursuing his returns. Neal contended that the purpose was to ensure the IRS-run Presidential Audit Program has no flaws.
Trump’s attorney in the case, Cameron T. Norris, has not issued a public comment on the ruling.
Presidents and presidential candidates are not required by law to disclose their tax returns, although it is a common practice. Trump is a rare exception, being the only president in modern U.S. history to have declined to publicly release his tax returns.