Trump tax returns: Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily halts release of records to Congress

CNN
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Chief Justice John Roberts tentatively agreed put on hold A lower court ordered the Internal Revenue Service to release former President Donald Trump’s tax returns to a Democratic-led House committee.

The tax reports will be referred to the House Ways and Means Committee later this week.

Roberts asked for a response by November 10.

An “administrative stay” is temporary in nature and does not always reflect the final disposition of the dispute. This is often done when a deadline approaches to preserve the status quo and give judges more time to act.

A judge with jurisdiction over lower courts has decided to grant such temporary relief amid a flurry of emergency petitions related to Trump in recent days.

For example, Judge Elena Kagan issued such a ban on October 26 On January 6, 2021, Arizona temporarily blocks a subpoena from the House Select Committee investigating the raids for phone and text message records of Arizona Republican Party leader Kelly Ward.

Justice Clarence Thomas Canceled an order Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s testimony was required before a Georgia grand jury on Oct. 24.

Roberts oversees the lower court that issued the order in the Trump IRS case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The congressional effort is to give the Democratic-led House a more direct route to long-awaited tax information.

Committee Chairman Richard Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat, originally sought the tax returns from the IRS in 2019, and the IRS, under the Trump administration, initially resisted turning them over. The case moved slowly until 2021, when, under the Biden administration, the Justice Department reversed its legal position and concluded that the IRS was obligated to comply with the group’s request. A Trump-appointed judge ruled in House’s favor late last year and the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals declined to reverse that ruling, and most recently the entire appeals court declined to take up the case.

A separate case involving the House Oversight Committee’s pursuit of tax information from his then-accounting firm ended in a settlement earlier this year after going to the Supreme Court in 2020. The Supreme Court argues that lower Trump courts overruled that 2020 case, Mazars.

“The Ways and Means Committee has the law on our side and will file a timely response as requested,” a committee spokesperson said on Tuesday. “Chairman Neill looks forward to swift Supreme Court review.”

This story has been updated with additional details.