Pascrell Statement on Eve of Trump Tax Returns Hearing

PATERSON, NJ – U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) today issued a statement on the eve of the U.S. Supreme Court’s oral arguments Tuesday in cases involving the release of Donald Trump’s tax returns. The three cases are: Trump v. Mazars (involving the House Committee on Oversight and Reform’s subpoena of Trump business records from an accounting firm), Trump v. Deutche Bank AG (dealing with subpoenas issued by the House Committee on Financial Services and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to obtain Trump financial records from his longtime bank), and Trump v. Vance, (regarding the constitutionality of a grand-jury subpoena of Trump’s tax returns as part of a state criminal probe).

“The law is crystal clear and no dog catcher, public official or President is above it,” said Rep. Pascrell, who has been leading the drive in Congress to obtain Donald Trump’s business and personal tax returns since 2017. “For over three years now, Congress and law enforcement officials have been trying to legally obtain Donald Trump’s business and personal tax returns only to be stymied by every illegal and obstructionary device yet known to mankind. At Donald Trump’s command, all of the powers of the United States government have been marshalled together for the sole purpose of keeping Trump’s tax returns hidden from sunlight. The American people have a right to know if their chief executive is a crook and they have been denied long enough. The technical matters presented in these cases are not only open-and-shut issues, but of titanic moral significance. If ever there was a case demanding an emphatic 9-to-0 decision this is it.”

Rep. Pascrell has been the most vocal proponent of Congress demanding review of Donald Trump’s tax returns. Since February 2017, Pascrell has led the call for the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means to invoke 26 U.S.C. §6103(f) of the tax code to obtain Trump’s tax returns. In the 115th Congress, Republicans voted 18 times to block Democratic resolutions seeking the tax returns. In March, Pascrell had a fiery exchange with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s illegal refusal to provide Trump’s tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee pursuant to Chairman Richard Neal’s (D-MA-01) request under Section 6103(f).

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