Jason Vinlove | USA Today Sports | Reuters Supreme Court Justice John Roberts on Tuesday temporarily blocked the House Ways and Means Committee from obtaining years of former President Donald Trump’s federal income tax returns from the IRS. Roberts’ order came a day after Trump’s lawyers filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court asking for the delay. The top judge gave the Ways and Means Committee until Nov. 10 to respond to Trump’s request for a longer delay of the order preventing them from obtaining his tax returns for the years 2015 to 2020. A federal judge in December ordered the IRS to turn over Trump’s records to the commission, which has said it wants them as part of an investigation into how the agency audits presidential returns. Trump had appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, but lost that effort in August. A three-judge panel of the appeals court, in a unanimous decision, noted that while tax returns are generally confidential under federal law, an exception is when the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee requests returns in writing from the secretary of the Treasury Department, the parent of the IRS . Last week, the appeals court rejected Trump’s request to have a larger panel of judges in that court review the case, leading to his emergency request for the Supreme Court to intervene. Roberts has authority over emergency petitions issued by the DC Circuit Court. This is breaking news. Check back for updates.
