Justice Department says IRS must give Trump's tax returns to Congress
CBSN
The Justice Department on Friday said the Treasury Department must hand over former President Trump's tax returns to the Ways and Means Committee, putting an apparent end in sight to the yearslong battle over the records.
In the 39-page opinion, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel found the committee "has invoked sufficient reasons for requesting the former President's tax information," adding that "the statute at issue here is unambiguous." The decision is a reversal to a 2019 opinion from the same office, which was under the direction of the Trump administration. The office says the previous decision failed to account that Congress is a co-equal branch to the executive and instead heavily focused on the belief the request was "disingenuous." The office departed from the previous administration, saying it "failed to afford the Committee the respect due to a coordinate branch of government."Chaos erupted overnight as police tried to break up a pro-Palestinian encampment at Emerson College in Boston, the latest flashpoint in a growing movement on college campuses around the country protesting Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza. Hundreds of people have been arrested in Massachusetts, Texas and California during the tense protests, following several rounds of arrests in New York in recent days.
The U.S. government, in what an attorney says is a "monumental admission," said last year that it caused injury to thousands of people on the Hawaiian island of Oahu when jet fuel from its storage facility leaked into the drinking water system. On Monday, thousands of military family members and locals are headed to trial seeking financial compensation.