The US Treasury Department has to submit former President Donald Trump's tax returns to Congress.
A committee in the House of Representatives responsible for budget and tax policy had legitimate reasons to inspect Trump's financial documents, the Justice Department decided on Friday.
The committee called "Committee on Ways and Means" had sued for the documents to be handed over.
The Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, spoke of a "victory for the rule of law". "Access to ex-President Trump's tax returns is a national security issue." American citizens deserved "the facts about his troubling conflicts of interest" which "undermined our security and democracy during his presidency," added Pelosi added.
For Trump, the ruling is the second legal setback this year: In February, the Supreme Court refused to block a transfer of the withheld tax returns to Manhattan's Attorney Cyrus Vance.
Vance has now received Trump's tax returns from 2011.
Publication in this context is, however, excluded as they are subject to confidentiality.
This could change now.
If the tax returns are submitted to the Committee in the House of Representatives, the likelihood of disclosure is significantly higher as the body can vote on them.
Trump can appeal against the recent Justice Department decision.
The Committee on Ways and Means, which also oversees the US tax authorities, demands Trump's tax returns from the six years before he moved into the White House. Democratic committee chairman Richard Neal argued that members should be able to understand how the US tax office is reviewing presidents' records and whether Trump had "improperly influenced" the agency.
Trump was the first president since Richard Nixon (1969 to 1974) to refuse to disclose his tax returns. This led to speculation that the real estate entrepreneur had something to hide, such as that he was nowhere near as successful as a businessman as he was claiming. There was also speculation about possible conflicts of interest. The New York Times reported in September 2020 that Trump paid no federal income tax for eleven of the 18 years between 2000 and 2017 - and in 2016 and 2017 only $ 750 each.