Trump takes fight to shield tax returns from House Committee to Supreme Court

Trump launches swing state blitz before Election Day

Washington – Former President Donald Trump is taking his fight to shield multiple years of his personal tax returns from House Democrats to the Supreme Court, filing an emergency request on Monday to the high court in an attempt to stop the pending disclosure. 

"This case raises important questions about the separation of powers that will affect every future President," Trump's legal team wrote. "The Committee's purpose in requesting President Trump's tax returns has nothing to do with funding or staffing issues at the IRS and everything to do with releasing the President's tax information to the public." 

Last week, the full federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. refused a request from the former president to reconsider a three-judge appellate panel's ruling against him.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled – apparently without any dissenting votes – that Trump's case against the House Ways and Means Committee should not be reheard en banc, and that the decision to allow the disclosure of his tax records to the committee should not be put on hold pending further litigation. 

Former U.S President Donald Trump speaks at a 'Save America' rally on October 22, 2022 in Robstown, Texas.  BRANDON BELL / Getty Images

Earlier this year, the three-judge panel in the D.C. appeals court unanimously ruled the committee had a right to obtain several years of Trump's tax returns, rejecting claims by the former president that multiple requests from the committee for the records were both unconstitutional and lacked a valid legislative purpose. 

"While it is possible that Congress may attempt to threaten the sitting president with an invasive request after leaving office, every president takes office knowing that he will be subject to the same laws as all other citizens upon leaving office," the judges wrote in August, "This is a feature of our democratic republic, not a bug."

In his filing to the Supreme Court on Monday, Trump argued the questions at issue are still unsettled and require consideration by the high court. "No Congress has ever wielded its legislative powers to demand a President's tax returns," wrote his attorneys, "Left unreviewed, the D.C. Circuit's decision will have far-reaching implications. It will establish an important (but incorrect) precedent for the political branches moving forward, binding in the circuit in which most conflicts over congressional demands for information must be litigated."

The litigation began after committee chairman Rep. Richard Neal, Democrat of Massachusetts, requested that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) hand over five years of Trump's tax records in 2019. The Treasury Department, at the time under Trump's control, refused to comply with the request despite a process by which Congress can request the tax document of certain individuals from the IRS. 

A lawsuit filed by Neal and the Ways and Means Committee followed, as did a transition in presidential power and a renewed request for the tax documents in 2021. 

Last year, a federal judge dismissed Trump's legal case  against the committee, the first in a string of legal losses for the former president as he fought to shield his tax records from Congress. 

"A long line of Supreme Court cases requires great deference to facially valid congressional inquiries," wrote Judge Trevor McFadden – a Trump appointee – in 2021.  "Even the special solicitude accorded former Presidents does not alter the outcome. The Court will therefore dismiss this case." 

Trump asked the court on Monday to pause the transfer of his financial records from the IRS to the committee pending further legal review.

The legal fight with the Ways and Means Committee is not the former president's first attempt to shield his financial records from Congressional review. In 2019, the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Trump's then accounting firm, Mazars, for several years' worth of financial papers. A lengthy legal battle ensued, ending in a settlement reached between Trump and the Committee earlier this year. Mazars began turning over the documents in September, according to The New York Times

Melissa Quinn contributed to this report. 

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