Trump Heads to Supreme Court for Second Time Over Tax Records
Trump Request Denied for Rehearing in House Tax-Records Case
(Bloomberg) -- For the second time in less than a week President Donald Trump said he’ll go to the U.S. Supreme Court to appeal court rulings threatening to expose his tax records.
An 11-judge panel of the appeals court in Washington on Wednesday left intact a ruling that lets House Democrats demand records from Trump’s accountants at Mazars USA LLP. Three of the judges said they would have reconsidered the ruling.
“In light of the well-reasoned dissent, we will seek review at the Supreme Court,“ Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow said in a statement. Sekulow said separately that Trump will file an emergency request on Friday asking the Supreme Court to block the subpoena while the justices consider whether to take up the appeal.
Congress issued the subpoena to Mazars in April as part of an investigation of whether to change ethics-in-government laws. Trump sued to block it, saying the House Oversight and Reform Committee had no legitimate legislative reason to seek his records. Trump’s last recourse now is to go to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a 2-1 decision in October, the appeals court panel called the House subpoena “a valid exercise of the legislative oversight authority because it seeks information important to determining the fitness of legislation to address potential problems within the Executive Branch and the electoral system.”
Last week Trump’s lawyers told a judge they’ll ask the Supreme Court to block a subpoena from the Manhattan district attorney seeking his tax filings and other financial records in a grand jury investigation. They’re due to file their request for consideration at the top court Thursday.
The federal appeals court in New York rejected Trump’s claim that he has broad immunity from criminal investigation. The panel ruled 3-0 that Trump can’t block the subpoena.
--With assistance from Jordan Fabian and Greg Stohr.
To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Harris in federal court in Washington at aharris16@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo
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