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House committee releases Donald Trump’s tax returns

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(NewsNation) — Democrats in Congress released six years’ worth of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns on Friday, the Associated Press reported.

The returns are from 2015 to 2020. As expected, they include redactions of some sensitive personal information such as Social Security and bank account numbers.

The longtime businessman’s finances have been a subject of public curiosity since his 2016 presidential run, when Trump who broke political norms by refusing to release his tax returns.

Last week, a Democratic-controlled committee voted to release those returns.

The vote happened the same day the panel released a report that spelled out the IRS’ failure to pursue mandatory audits of Trump on a timely basis during his presidency.

The report indicated the Trump administration may have disregarded an IRS requirement dating back to 1977 that mandates audits of a president’s tax filings, according to the AP.

Democrats on the committee said making the returns public was necessary to understanding the context of its report, which also included legislation that would mandate the IRS to audit presidents.

The IRS began audits of Trump’s 2016 tax filings more than two years into his presidency and on the same day, the panel’s chairman Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., asked the IRS for information related to Trump’s tax returns.

“A president is no ordinary taxpayer,” Neal said in a statement. “They hold power and influence unlike any other American. And with great power comes even greater responsibility.”

The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee initially requested Trump’s tax returns in April 2019 but then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin refused to turn them over.

In a 2016 interview with the AP, Trump said he would release his tax returns after a “routine audit” was complete. Trump, however, reversed course after winning the presidential election and chose not to release them, first reported during an interview with then-White House adviser Kellyanne Conway on ABC’s “This Week.”

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

This story is developing. Refresh for updates.