The US House should be able to access some of Donald Trump’s tax records through a subpoena to his accounting firm Mazars USA, a federal judge in Washington, DC, ruled on Wednesday.
The ruling is a resounding loss for Trump, given that the accounting records appear to cover financial information that the former President has fiercely protected.
It is a major step toward resolving the long-running fight over access to Trump’s tax records. Trump has been able to delay the subpoena by taking the case to court, appealing all the way to the Supreme Court. That legal fight has lasted more than two years.
The case is a continuation of the House tax returns case that traveled up to the Supreme Court. Now, District Judge Amit Mehta has weighed the House request for Trump’s financial records against the standards laid out by the Supreme Court in its 7-2 ruling last year.
With that Supreme Court opinion in mind, Mehta upheld the parts of the House subpoena that were targeted at the lawmakers’ stated need for considering legislation around Foreign Emoluments Clause issues and the General Services Administration’s lease with the Trump hotel at the Old Post Office building in Washington. The committee also can access some financial documents from 2017 and 2018, Mehta decided.
