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On November 1, a Monday, Ex-President Trump, worried about a Thursday deadline to hand over his tax returns to a Congressional Committee, asked the Supreme Court to stop the order.
Within record time, on Tuesday he received a response from Chief Justice John Roberts.
Just a few days before, a federal appeals court had ruled against Trump’s attempts to stall the order, after which Trump sent the emergency appeal.
Trump’s lawyers said that the case raises important questions about the separation of powers that could affect all US presidents in the future. They said handing over the tax returns was supposed to be carried out on Thursday and asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the matter by Wednesday to delay the handover of the documents.
Trump’s lawyers claimed that the House Committee wants Trump’s tax returns so they can publish them publicly and that they have a political motive. The Committee consists mostly of Democrats.
In his order, Chief Roberts told the House Ways and Mean Committee lawyers, which have been trying to get Trump’s tax returns since 2019, that they had to file a response to Trump’s claims by Thursday, November 10. On Thursday, the House lawyers urged the Supreme Court not to delay the lawsuit, saying that continuing to block access to the tax returns would undermine Congress’s constitutional authority.
On Thursday, the Biden administration also asked the Supreme Court to allow the release of the tax returns. In a 29-page brief, Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar pointed out that a district court judge, an appeals court panel and the full Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had all agreed that the law gives the committee a right to see the tax returns.
Let’s see how quickly they get an answer.
It is speculated that the Supreme Court will rule on the case and make a final decision.
Now that the midterm elections are almost over, although the votes continue to be counted, and it is almost certain that the Republicans will take back control of the House of Representatives, it could end the three-year-old attempt by the House Ways and Means Committee to get Trump’s tax returns.
The Congressional Committee is led by Chairman Representative Richard Neal from Massachusetts, a Democrat. The Committee first requested Trump’s returns in 2019 while they were investigating the IRS’s audit program and former President Trump’s compliance with tax laws.
The IRS is legally required to audit the tax returns of presidents, and federal law says that the IRS can give the returns of any taxed citizen to some top legislative officials.
Former Trump administration Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, decided to withhold then-President Trump’s tax returns from Congress, and the Justice Department supported his decision during Trump’s term.
After President Joe Biden took office in 2021, the House Committee decided to renew the request for Trump’s returns for the four years he was president, from 2015 to 2020. The request was approved by the White House and the Biden administration asked the Treasury Department to comply. Trump has filed many suits and appeals in court trying to stop the handover of his tax returns.
A Federal Court Judge from Washington, DC, Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, ruled last December that the IRS had to hand over the requested returns to the House Committee. He said that even if it was true that the Committee’s motivations were political, the chairman of the Committee had presented valid legislative reasons for requesting the returns.
The other judges who rejected Trump’s request in his appeals agreed with that opinion, saying that the Committee had legitimate legislative reasons for their request.