U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) today praised a decision by the U.S. Department of Justice to agree with the Ways and Means Committee’s position and authorize the transmittal of Donald Trump’s business and personal tax returns to the Committee.

“It is about damn time. Our committee first sought Donald Trump’s tax returns on April 3, 2019 – 849 days ago. Our request was made in full accordance with the law and pursuant to Congress’s constitutional oversight powers. And for 849 days, our request has been illegally blocked by a tag-team of the Trump Justice Department and a Trump-appointed judge,” said Rep. Pascrell. “I thank Attorney General Garland for doing the right thing and no longer using the government to shield a corrupt private citizen.

“This case is now bigger even than Donald Trump’s crimes and impacts whether the Article I branch can conduct effective oversight to impose accountability on the Article II branch. Neither the courts, nor the machinery of our government exist to bodyguard a corrupt private citizen from transparency. Judge McFadden should dismiss this matter and allow the Treasury to transmit these tax records to the Committee as the Treasury has routinely been doing for decades.”

Rep. Pascrell has been the most vocal proponent of the Congress reviewing 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 Section 6103 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. Last March, Pascrell had a fiery exchange with disgraced former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for his illegal refusal to provide Trump’s tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee.