Washington | Court documents showed that a US federal judge rejected, on Tuesday, former President Donald Trump’s request to prevent Congress from obtaining his tax returns.

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The decision by Washington District Court Judge Trevor McFadden – appointed by Donald Trump during his presidency – represents a major setback for Donald Trump, who has struggled so hard not to make his tax returns public, despite his 2016 campaign promise.

According to the former Republican president, the access request from the Democratic-majority House of Representatives is partisan.

And for Democrat-elect Richard Neill, the chairman of the House of Representatives committee wishing to see Donald Trump’s tax file, the judge’s decision is “no surprise.”

“It is clear that the law is on the side of the commission,” he said.

The Justice Department in August ordered the US Treasury to provide the House of Representatives committee with billionaire tax documents for six years that Donald Trump has refused to release.

US presidents are not legally required to disclose details of their personal finances, but everyone who has held the White House since Richard Nixon in the 1970s has done so. Other than Mr. Trump.

The Parliamentary Committee has the right to publish tax returns, but Judge Trevor McFadden’s ruling also contains a cautionary note.

The judge stressed that “it may not be right or desirable to publish tax returns, but it is the right of the (committee) chairman to do so.”