Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas told fellow lawmakers Tuesday that the proposed release of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns could set a precedent that affects even the Supreme Court of the United States.
Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee late Tuesday night announced the release of six years of Trump’s tax returns.
Brady, the House Ways and Means Committee ranking member, warned that it was setting a ‘dangerous’ precedent to release the documents and that no government body should have the power to do so.
‘Going forward, the majority chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee will have nearly unlimited power to target and make public the tax returns of private citizens,’ Brady told fellow lawmakers.
The committee voted 24-16 to release the information.
Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., said ‘every effort’ would be made to remove certain personal information from the information that is released, and it was not immediately clear how long that would take.
‘And not just private citizens. Political enemies, business and labor leaders or even the returns of Supreme Court justices themselves,’ Brady added. ‘No party in Congress should have that power. No individuals in Congress could have that power. It’s the power to embarrass, to harass or destroy Americans through disclosure of their tax returns.’
The committee will technically be releasing a report on Trump’s taxes.
Brady is the top Republican on the committee. The congressman said the information in the report includes six years of Trump’s tax returns, the returns of eight ‘affiliated businesses,’ and related audit notes.
Fox News’s Peter Kasperowicz and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
