By Moira Warburton
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. House of Representatives committee will meet on Tuesday to discuss former President Donald Trump’s tax returns, which it obtained late last month after a long court fight, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The Democratic-controlled House Ways and Means Committee’s closed-door meeting will come just two weeks before Republicans are set to assume the majority in the House, which they narrowly won in November’s midterm elections.
That leaves the Democrats little time to decide what, if anything, to do with Trump’s returns before losing the power to set the committee’s agenda.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the committee’s favor last month. The committee formally announced a meeting on Tuesday, relating to “documents protected under the Internal Revenue Code” without specifying Trump.
Trump was the first presidential candidate in decades to not release his tax returns during either of his campaigns for president.
Ways and Means Democrats have said they need to see Trump’s records to assess whether the Internal Revenue Service is properly auditing presidential tax returns and to gauge whether new legislation is needed.
Questions remain about what the committee will do with Trump’s taxes after the gavel goes to the Republicans in January.
The documents are still subject to federal confidentiality restrictions, but Democratic lawmakers could make some details public, possibly after a vote by the full House.
(Reporting by Moira Warburton; additional reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Scott Malone and Bill Berkrot)
