Supreme Court denies appeal from Trump, rules he must turn taxes over to House committee

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court blocked a request by former President Donald Trump to prevent the House committee from obtaining his tax returns.

According to NPR, the Supreme Court’s ruling means that the taxes should be released by the Treasury Department to the Committee immediately, which has ended an long legal battle.

“The House looks forward to promptly receiving and reviewing these documents,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), adding that the tax information is vital to “guarding the public interest, defending our national security and holding our public officials to account.”

Trump filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court on Oct. 31, seeking to block the release of his tax information until the court considered whether it needed to hear the full argument on the matter.

The SCOTUS ruling came after a D.C. Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the House committees request to obtain his taxe returns was constitutional, according to NPR.

Trump’s legal team has argued that him submitting his tax returns would be an unconstitutional breach of the separation of powers, and said that the committee was politically motivated.

As evidence, his legal team pointed to several statements made by Democratic lawmakers who wanted to see the returns in order to find out “what the Russians have on Donald Trump” and “how deep the crimes go.”