The chief justice’s order maintains the status quo while the Supreme Court evaluates Trump’s emergency request, filed Monday, to block a lower court ruling that upheld a House committee’s request for the tax material as a legitimate part of his legislative work. . lawyers are preparing an appeal. Roberts instructed the House Ways and Means Committee Democrats to respond to Trump’s effort by Nov. 10. This is two days after the US midterm elections, in which Trump’s Republican colleagues are seeking to regain control of Congress. The legal battle has been ongoing since 2019, when the committee sued Trump to force disclosure of tax returns. Trump was the first president in four decades not to release his tax returns as he aimed to keep details of his wealth and the activities of his company, the Trump Organization, secret. Allowing the lower court’s decision to stand “would undermine the separation of powers and make the office of the President vulnerable to intrusive information demands from political opponents of the legislative branch,” Trump’s lawyers wrote, referring to the separation of powers between the three branches of the US government. The committee’s purpose is “to expose President Trump’s tax information to the public for exposure purposes,” the lawyers added. U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts attends U.S. President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, U.S., March 1, 2022. Al Drago/Pool via REUTERS The committee in its request cited a federal law that authorizes its chairman to request any person’s tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service. House Democrats have said they need Trump’s tax returns to see if the IRS is properly auditing the president’s returns and to assess whether new legislation is needed. Trump’s lawyers have called that explanation “pretentious” and “disingenuous,” saying the real goal is to uncover politically damaging information about Trump, who is considering another run for the presidency in 2024. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, sided with Congress in December 2021 and dismissed the case, finding that the committee has broad authority over a former president’s tax returns. Trump is “wrong with the law,” McFadden wrote in his ruling. “A long line of Supreme Court cases demands great deference to face-to-face congressional inquiries. Even special treatment given to former presidents does not change the result,” McFadden added. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in August also ruled against Trump, concluding that “every president enters office knowing that he will be subject to the same laws as all other citizens after he leaves office.” The DC Circuit on October 27 denied a rehearing. Report by Andrew Chung. Edited by Will Dunham Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
