The Daily Fuckup

The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel said on July 30, 2021, that the Treasury Department must provide former President Donald Trump’s tax returns and related tax information to the House Ways and Means Committee. The opinion, dated July 30 and posted that day, concluded that the committee had given enough legally valid reasons to support its request under the tax code. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/d9/opinions/attachments/2021/07/30/2021-07-30-potus-tax-returns.pdf))

The memo centers on section 6103(f)(1), which gives the congressional tax committees a special right to request tax information from Treasury. In this case, the opinion said the executive branch should conclude that such a request lacks a legitimate legislative purpose only in exceptional circumstances. It found that Chairman Richard Neal’s June 16, 2021 request met the standard and that Treasury therefore must furnish the records. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/d9/opinions/attachments/2021/07/30/2021-07-30-potus-tax-returns.pdf))

The committee said it wanted the material to examine the IRS’s audit program for presidents and to consider whether changes in the law were needed. The opinion said that was a legitimate basis for congressional inquiry. It also said the possibility that some lawmakers might want disclosure for political reasons would not erase the committee’s lawful interest in the records. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/d9/opinions/attachments/2021/07/30/2021-07-30-potus-tax-returns.pdf))

The ruling did not say Trump had done anything wrong, and it did not reveal what the returns contain. It also did not end the broader fight over the records, since the dispute had already moved through years of litigation and could still face more court action. What it did do was give the House committee a fresh legal green light and undercut the earlier view that Treasury could block the request by treating the committee’s stated purpose as a pretext. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/d9/opinions/attachments/2021/07/30/2021-07-30-potus-tax-returns.pdf))