House Dems finally get Trump’s tax returns

House committee obtains Trump’s tax returns; China softens Covid restrictions after mass protests.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Jariel Arvin.

House Dems have weeks to probe Trump tax records

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

• On Wednesday, a congressional committee obtained six years of Donald Trump’s tax returns after the Supreme Court denied the former president’s request to keep the records sealed. [Associated Press / Fatima Hussein]
• The Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee will review Trump’s returns from 2015 to 2020 for improprieties, and could recommend new legislation if necessary. [Guardian / Martin Pengelly]
• Trump broke precedent by not releasing his returns and has battled for years to avoid their release. [BBC / James FitzGerald]
• The committee has less than a month to complete its work, as Republicans will take control of the House in January and have no plans to continue the investigation. [Wall Street Journal / Richard Rubin]
• Its members met Thursday to discuss handling the records. It’s unclear if the documents will become available to the public or yield new information. [CNN / Devan Cole]
• However, a New York Times investigation previously revealed Trump avoided paying most federal income taxes. And the New York state attorney general has sued the Trump family, saying they overstated the value of assets. [New York Times / Charlie Savage]

China loosens Covid-19 restrictions

• China began easing some of its Covid rules on Thursday after the country saw the worst mass protests in years. [NBC News / Jennifer Jett]
• Several major cities modified testing requirements and loosened lockdown restrictions; a top pandemic official said China’s pandemic response had entered a new phase. [NYT / David Pierson and Chang Che]
• The statements follow widespread protests over Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s “zero-Covid” policy aimed at eliminating every virus case. [BBC / Yvette Tan]
• Meanwhile, China reported 35,000 new cases on Wednesday, prompting efforts to boost vaccinations for the elderly. [CNN / Simone McCarthy]

📍 If you read just one story

Vox’s Kelsey Piper explains how China’s mass protests highlight the injustices in Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy. [Vox / Kelsey Piper]

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Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, said on Wednesday he didn’t try to commit fraud at a New York Times conference. [Vox / Whizy Kim]

• Thursday, Georgia's Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said he couldn’t vote for the GOP’s Herschel Walker or incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock in the state’s Senate runoff. [The Hill / Zach Schonfeld]
• Police arrested an 82-year-old Alabama woman this week after she failed to pay her trash removal bill. [NBC News / Antonio Planas]
• The Supreme Court will hear challenges in February to President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program. Relief remains blocked until then. [NPR / Nina Totenberg and Jess Zalph]

“The clock is ticking.”

[House committee chair Richard Neal on analyzing Trump’s tax returns / WSJ]

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