Former President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Monday to block the release of his tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service slated to be sent to a House committee.
Trump filed his emergency request just days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected his bid to reconsider its previous 3-0 ruling that paved the way for his tax information to be sent to the House Ways and Means Committee. The request was made to Chief Justice John Roberts, who has authority over such appeals stemming from the District of Columbia.
“No Congress has ever wielded its legislative powers to demand a President’s tax returns,” Trump argued to the high court, expressing outrage about the “far-reaching implications” of the D.C. Circuit’s ruling.
The committee initially sued in 2019 to obtain Trump’s federal records from 2015 through 2020 after then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin refused to comply with the committee’s request.
TRUMP LOSES LATEST BID TO BLOCK TAX RETURNS FROM CONGRESS
Federal court Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, ruled in December that the Treasury Department must turn over the tax returns, holding that despite Trump’s claims that the pursuit of records by the House committee was politically motivated, the committee’s chairman, Richard Neal (D-MA), held a “valid legislative purpose” with his request.
Trump then appealed to the D.C. Circuit, in which a three-judge panel unanimously rejected the former president’s request in August.
“The Chairman has identified a legitimate legislative purpose that it requires information to accomplish,” Judge David Sentelle, a Reagan appointee, wrote in the panel’s opinion. “At this stage, it is not our place to delve deeper than this.”
The former president subsequently asked 10 judges on the D.C. Circuit for a rehearing, which was ultimately rejected on Thursday, teeing up Trump’s emergency request to the high court on Monday.
Last week, Neal said the years of waiting had been “long enough,” adding that “we must begin our oversight of the IRS’s mandatory presidential audit program as soon as possible.”
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The House committee has long sought Trump’s tax records and those of related business properties as part of an investigation into how the IRS audits presidential tax returns.
The IRS is tasked with the responsibility by the Treasury Department to audit the annual tax returns of every sitting president.
