This is the second time the court of appeal is refusing President Donald Trump’s attempt to stop an accounting firm from turning over his financial documents to the House. However, Trump’s lawyers say they are taking the matter to the Supreme Court. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday said that a board of eight judges out of 11 voted against allowing Trump to continue his appeal to not turn over his tax returns.
This decision by the Court of Appeal is a huge loss for President Donald Trump. Federal judges have continually rebuked him and agreed that he should submit his tax returns. Since his lawyers are taking it to the Supreme Court, if he loses again, he will be forced to deliver his tax returns or closely related financial documents into the hands of House Democrats.The outlook echoes the strong indication the court sent last month, when it upheld a lower court ruling that Trump’s longtime accounting firm Mazars USA must comply with a House subpoena of his tax documents and turn over eight years of accounting records.Trump’s attorney Jay Sekulow said Wednesday November 24 that they will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, noting “well-reasoned dissent” from three judges to Wednesday’s opinion.
The House Speaker Nancy Pelosi applauded the new ruling in a statement Thursday, where she said “once again, the courts have resoundingly reaffirmed the Congress’s authority to conduct oversight and consider legislation on behalf of the American people.”
In another light, Trump has been given a deadline until Thursday to ask the Supreme Court to block a Manhattan grand jury subpoena for copies of his financial records and tax returns. His attorneys said that, they intend to ask the Supreme Court to take up the New York case.
To worsen the situation, there is yet another third case filling on Wednesday night, as Trump’s legal team asked a judge for a two-week defense period if the US House asks for his tax returns through New York State. Congressional Democrats countered in that court filing that they’d like to write an argument this week responding to this request and have an in-person hearing before the judge makes a decision.
More to this,the majority of the appeals court, did not give any reason why they refused Trump’s appeal on Wednesday. But two judges, Greg Katsas and Neomi Rao, both of which are Trump appointees to the federal bench, wrote that they disagreed with the vote and would have heard Trump’s arguments again. Katsas, who served in the White House Counsel’s office before taking the bench, wrote that he wanted a larger panel of judges on the court to hear the case, which he said presents “exceptionally important questions regarding the separation of powers among Congress, the Executive Branch and the Judiciary.” He said that because the records are “personal” and not related to the office of the presidency, the “unavailability” of an assertion of executive privilege “creates an open season on the President’s personal records.”
The administration has continued to stand its ground against all efforts to attain Trump’s tax returns. Trump has claimed that ongoing IRS audits have stopped him from making his tax returns public, even though audits don’t prevent individuals from releasing tax returns.
