(Presidentialwire.com)- Chief Justice John Roberts sided with conservatives after all this week, when he put a temporary block on a committee in the House of Representative from receiving the tax returns of former President Donald Trump.
For now, this decision means that the fight will be paused. Lawmakers have been pushing for access to Trump’s tax returns, while Trump has countered that by saying their motive for doing so is political in nature.
Trump filed an emergency request on Monday to block a ruling from a lower court that allowed the House panel to have access to Trump’s tax records. The lower court ruled it was within the panel’s rights to receive those records since it was part of the legislative work it was doing.
By granting Trump’s emergency request, Roberts basically prevents the House panel from gaining access to the records while Trump’s attorneys prepare their appeal for that lower court case.
It doesn’t mean that the House panel won’t eventually gain access to those tax records. It just means that they’ll have to wait a little longer to do so — and will have to fight in court to defend their right to see them.
The House Ways and Means Committee, led by Democrats, now has until November 10 to respond to the bid from the former president. That date is pertinent because it’s only two days after the midterm elections, which could result in Republicans retaking control of the House of Representatives.
If that were to happen, it might be possible for Trump to drag this case out in court long enough for the “changing of the guard” to happen next January. Then, with Republicans in control of all House committees, it’s very possible that the GOP could simply squash the issue and not pursue his tax records any more.
The fight has been going on in court since back in 2019. That’s when the House committee first filed a lawsuit against Trump that would force him to disclose his tax returns. He was actually the first president in more than 40 years to decline to release his tax returns.
Many have claimed that Trump didn’t want the American public to be informed of his total wealth or the activities of his Trump Organization.
In arguing their case, lawyers for the former president said that if the Supreme Court were to allow the lower court’s decision to stay in place, it would “undermine the separation of powers and render the office of the Presidency vulnerable to invasive information demands from political opponents in the legislative branch.”
Trump’s lawyers added that the purpose of the committee is “exposing President Trump’s tax information to the public for the sake of exposure.”
The committee is arguing that a federal law allows the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee to request from the IRS the tax returns for any person in the country.
Democrats in the House have argued they need to examine the former president’s tax returns to see whether the IRS was auditing presidential tax returns properly, or whether new legislation needed to be passed.
