Donald Trump suffered his second serious setback this week in the ongoing effort to keep lawmakers and prosecutors from getting a look at his closely-guarded tax returns.
On Friday, an federal appeals court rejected the president’s effort to block a subpoena from the House oversight committee, which originally requested documents from his accountant in April after Elijah Cummings wrote to Mazars USA as part of an investigation into the claims Michael Cohen made during public testimony in February.
Trump promptly sued. A federal district court ruled against him and now the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld that ruling.
Read more: Trump Says It’s ‘Crazy’ That His Accounting Firm Was Ordered To Turn Over Documents To Congress
“Contrary to the President’s arguments, the Committee possesses authority under both the House Rules and the Constitution to issue the subpoena, and Mazars must comply”, judges David Tatel and Patricia Millett wrote in a majority opinion (embedded in full below).
This doesn’t mean that Mazars will immediately hand over Trump’s financial records, though. Apparently, the ruling will be put on hold pending a petition for a rehearing.
“Trump has lost his battle to keep his tax records secret from the House. The DC Circuit, the nation’s 2nd highest court, just ruled the tax and financial records have to be turned over”, Neal Katyal, former acting Solicitor General said, adding that although Trump can try to appeal it to the Supreme Court, it “will be hard”.
As for the dissent, Katyal calls it “kind of whackadoodle”. It reads, in part, “The familiar tale recounted by the majority describes a general arc of expanding legislative powers…”
“On what planet have folks in last 50 years feared expanding legislative (as opposed to executive) power?”, Katyal asked, calling the idea “nuts and profoundly antidemocratic”.
Earlier this week, Trump had to secure a last-minute stay after a federal judge in Manhattan called the president’s contention that he is immune from criminal investigations “repugnant to the nation’s governmental structure and constitutional values”.
The 75-page ruling meant the Manhattan district attorney’s office can subpoena eight years of Trump’s personal and corporate tax returns as part of a separate matter.
Ultimately, Trump will continue to insist on stalling in the hope of keeping his financial records out of the public eye until the 2020 election, but the battle is clearly being lost.
Cummings is pleased. “[This is a] resounding victory for Congressional oversight”, he said, in a statement, adding that “after months of delay, it is time for the President to stop blocking Mazars from complying with the Committee’s lawful subpoena”.
