SCOTUS temporarily blocks House committee from obtaining Trump’s tax returns

The Supreme Court this week responded to a request by former president Donald Trump’s legal team to halt the release of several years’ worth of Trump’s tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee, which has been seeking the documents since 2021.

On Monday, Trump’s legal team filed an emergency request for SCOTUS to block the turning over of six years’ worth of Trump’s tax returns so that they had time to appeal a decision last week by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that declined to hear arguments to overturn a previous ruling that ordered the handover of the documents to the House committee.

On Tuesday, Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily blocked the committee from obtaining the documents while the high court considers Trump’s request.

Trump’s legal team argued that the release of the former president’s tax returns to the House committee would set a questionable precedent for future presidents.

“This case raises important questions about the separation of powers that will affect every future president,” the filing reads. “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.”

The original request by the Ways and Means Committee was made citing a need to assess the Internal Revenue Services’ presidential audit procedures.

At the time, the Department of Justice agreed with the Committee, saying the reasoning for the request was legitimate. Trump’s legal team, however, has argued that the Committee is only seeking Trump’s tax returns for partisan reasons.