House Democrats set to discuss how to handle Trump’s tax returns

By Devan Cole, CNN

The Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee will meet Thursday to discuss how to handle six years of former President Donald Trump’s federal tax returns, one day after the panel received access to the records following a protracted legal fight.

The committee is planning to be briefed by House general counsel Doug Letter on the legal ramifications of the section of the tax law that chairman Richard Neal used to request the tax returns, according to a Neal aide.

Though Democrats will strategize over how to handle the documents at Thursday’s meeting, they are not expected to review the tax returns at that time, and the documents are not expected to be immediately released to the public.

Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat, refused to say to CNN on Wednesday if he had possession of the Trump tax documents, saying the law strictly prohibits him from discussing the state of the returns. Earlier that day, the congressman also declined to say if they would release any of the returns publicly.

Trump’s taxes have been largely a mystery since his first White House run, when he broke with presidential election norms and refused to produce his tax returns for public review, and they remained private after he took office. His legal team had continuously sought to keep his returns secret, and turned to the Supreme Court — composed of three of his nominees — after he lost at the lower court level.

An expansive New York Times report in 2020 found that Trump paid no federal income taxes whatsoever in 10 out of 15 years beginning in 2000 because he reported losing significantly more than he made.

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CNN’s Manu Raju and Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.