Trump does not want to reveal his tax returns, why?
2:32
(CNN) ––
US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has agreed to temporarily stay a lower court decision that ordered the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to release tax returns from former President Donald Trump to a House committee led by Democratic lawmakers.
Trump's tax returns were due to be delivered to the House Ways and Means Committee later this week.
Trump asks the Supreme Court to prevent the IRS from delivering his tax returns to the House of Representatives
However, Judge Roberts asked for a response before November 10.
This "administrative stay" is temporary and does not necessarily reflect the final disposition of the dispute.
It is a measure often implemented when a deadline approaches to preserve the
status quo
and give judges more time to act.
Faced with the flurry of Trump-related emergency petitions in recent days, the judge who has jurisdiction over the lower courts decided to issue such temporary relief.
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Judge Elena Kagan, for example, issued such a stay on October 26 and temporarily blocked a request by the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection to obtain the president's phone and text records. of the Arizona Republican Party, Kelli Ward.
Judge Clarence Thomas stayed an order on Oct. 24 that required Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham to testify before a Georgia grand jury.
ANALYSIS |
John Roberts has lost control of the US Supreme Court.
Roberts oversees the trial court that issued the order to the IRS to hand over Trump's tax returns: the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The commission's effort seeks to provide the Democratic-led House of Representatives with the most direct route to long-sought tax information.
Commission Chairman Richard Neal, D-Massachusetts, initially requested the tax returns from the IRS in 2019, and that agency, under the Trump administration, resisted releasing them at the time.
The case crept up to 2021, when, under the Biden administration, the Justice Department changed its legal position and concluded that the IRS was required to comply with the commission's request.
A Trump-appointed judge ruled in favor of the House of Representatives late last year, and the Washington City Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to overturn that decision, in fact the court avoided taking the case last week. .
In another legal battle related to the House Oversight Committee's effort to get tax information from Trump's then-accounting firm, it ended in a settlement earlier this year, after it reached the Supreme Court in 2020. By taking the dispute with the Ways and Means Commission to the Supreme Court, Trump argues that lower courts have run afoul of that 2020 case, known as Mazars.
"The Ways and Means Commission maintains that the law is on our side and will present a timely response as requested," a spokesman for the panel said Tuesday.
"Chairman Neal looks forward to prompt consideration by the Supreme Court."
CNN's Daniella Diaz contributed to this report.
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