![Justice Department says IRS must give Trump's tax returns to Congress](https://cbsnews3.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2021/02/08/214bf190-6024-4d7a-a645-d3a47739c90f/thumbnail/1200x630/4dd1e53fb3aa5cc8469f58b7ceb151a3/gettyimages-1230553516.jpg)
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."![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250214202746.jpg)
Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a high-stakes meeting at this year's Munich Security conference to discuss the Trump administration's efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Vance said the U.S. seeks a "durable" peace, while Zelenskyy expressed the desire for extensive discussions to prepare for any end to the conflict.
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Washington — The Trump administration on Thursday intensified its sweeping efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce, the nation's largest employer, by ordering agencies to lay off nearly all probationary employees who hadn't yet gained civil service protection - potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of workers.
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It was Labor Day weekend 2003 when Matt Scribner, a local horse farrier and trainer who also competes in long-distance horse races, was on his usual ride in a remote part of the Sierra Nevada foothills — just a few miles northeast of Auburn, California —when he noticed a freshly dug hole along the trail that piqued his curiosity.