Democratic lawmakers vote to release former President Trump’s tax returns

Democrats on the House Ways and Means committee voted Tuesday to release former President Donald Trump’s tax returns in a move that opponents say will have “severe consequences.”

The vote was 24-16 on a party-line basis.

The six years of returns — spanning from 2015-2020 — will be released to the public in the coming days after the documents are prepared by staffers to redact information like Social Security numbers, street addresses, and other identifying data.

The returns will be released as part of a larger committee report on the IRS practice of auditing presidents and marks the end of a long partisan battle that began when then-candidate Trump broke years of tradition by refusing to release his tax returns during the 2016 presidential campaign.

"After a long process, this was not about being punitive, this was not about being malicious," Committee chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) said Tuesday after the vote.

The committee had a range of options on the table from keeping the returns private for now or releasing a summary to releasing all or part of the returns themselves and opting to send the documents to the full House of Representatives, which has the effect of making them public.

The move drew intense condemnation from Republicans on the committee and across Washington.

"Democrats are unleashing a dangerous new political weapon that is going to have severe consequences," GOP ranking member Kevin Brady (R-TX) said Tuesday.

Republicans will take control of the powerful tax-writing committee in just a few weeks and wouldn’t say if today’s move will lead to reprisals.

"I won't speculate on what the next Congress and this committee will focus on related to tax returns,” Brady said. "But I do know a big focus will be on the IRS."

Brady is retiring this year and Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) is one of the candidates to replace him atop the committee next year. Buchanan has called the move “an extremely slippery slope and would make clear no American is safe from being targeted for their personal or political beliefs.”