The move further delays an oversight request by the House Ways and Means Committee from 2019 as the midterm election looms.
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Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump had asked the Supreme Court on Monday to block a House committee from obtaining his tax returns.
WASHINGTON — Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. issued an order on Tuesday to temporarily bar the Treasury Department from giving former President Donald J. Trump’s tax returns to a House committee, the latest move in a long-running dispute over whether Congress can gain access to them.
Lawyers for Mr. Trump had asked the Supreme Court on Monday to freeze matters while they prepared a formal appeal of a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which held that the House Ways and Means Committee had a right to see his returns.
Chief Justice Roberts oversees appeals that come out of the District of Columbia Circuit Court. In a terse order, he gave lawyers for the House Ways and Means Committee, which has been seeking the returns since 2019, a deadline of Nov. 10 to file a response to Mr. Trump’s latest move. The setting of a deadline is an indication that the full Supreme Court will rule on the matter.
The Democrats who run the committee are running out of time to obtain Mr. Trump’s tax returns. If Republicans retake control of the House in the midterm elections next week, as polls indicate is likely, they are almost certain to drop the request when the new Congress is seated in January. Mr. Trump has pursued a strategy of using the slow pace of litigation to run out the clock on oversight efforts, which he has done since he was president.
The decision in effect extended an order by a Trump-appointed Federal District Court judge, Trevor N. McFadden, which had blocked the Treasury Department from providing the tax returns to Congress while the Circuit Court considered the case.
What to Know About the Trump Investigations
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Numerous inquiries. Since leaving office, former President Donald J. Trump has been facing several investigations into his business dealings and political activities. Here is a look at some notable cases:
Classified documents inquiry. The F.B.I. searched Mr. Trump’s Florida home as part of the Justice Department’s investigation into his handling of classified materials. The inquiry is focused on documents that Mr. Trump had brought with him to Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence, when he left the White House.
Jan. 6 investigations. In a series of public hearings, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack laid out a comprehensive narrative of Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. This evidence could allow federal prosecutors, who are conducting a parallel criminal investigation, to indict Mr. Trump.
Georgia election interference case. Fani T. Willis, the Atlanta-area district attorney, has been leading a wide-ranging criminal investigation into the efforts of Mr. Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia. This case could pose the most immediate legal peril for the former president and his associates.
New York State’s civil case. Letitia James, the New York attorney general, filed a lawsuit against Mr. Trump and his family business, accusing both of a sweeping pattern of fraudulent business practices. The yearslong investigation has been focused on whether Mr. Trump’s statements about the value of his assets were part of a pattern of fraud or simply Trumpian showmanship.
Manhattan criminal case. Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, has been investigating whether Mr. Trump or his family business intentionally submitted false property values to potential lenders. While it appears Mr. Trump is unlikely to be indicted, the investigation has yielded criminal charges against the Trump Organization and a plea deal with its chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg.
Judge McFadden had ruled — and the District of Columbia Circuit Court agreed — that the law gives the Ways and Means Committee the right to gain access to the returns. But the judge first sat on the case for nearly two and a half years before making his ruling, and the additional delay increases the chances that the House committee will run out of time to obtain them.
The case traces to the 2016 election, when Mr. Trump broke with modern precedent for presidential candidates — and, later, for sitting presidents — by refusing to make his returns public. After Democrats took over the House in 2019, they began trying to investigate his hidden finances.
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Representative Richard E. Neal, Democrat of Massachusetts and the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, requested Mr. Trump’s tax returns, citing a federal law that gives his panel the authority to see any taxpayer’s documents. But the Trump administration refused to let the Treasury Department turn over the records.
In July 2019, the House filed a lawsuit seeking to enforce its request. But Judge McFadden delayed making any ruling, and that sessions of Congress expired. In 2021, Mr. Neal issued a renewed request for Mr. Trump’s tax returns from 2015 to 2020, saying the committee was studying a program that audits presidents.
Under the Biden administration, the Justice Department also issued a memorandum saying the committee had a legal right to obtain the records. In December 2021, Judge McFadden finally issued a decision, agreeing that the law says the committee has a legal right to obtain the records.
Mr. Trump appealed, and in August a panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld Judge McFadden’s decision. Mr. Trump asked the full circuit court to rehear the case. It declined to do so last week, leading Mr. Trump to turn to the Supreme Court as he continued to slowly litigate the matter.
Source: nytimes.com
