Kevin Daley on November 18, 2019
Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily blocked a lower court ruling requiring President Donald Trump’s accounting firm to turn over eight years worth of Trump accounting records to the House Oversight Committee in a short Monday order.
The decision, called an administrative stay, means House Democrats will not have access to Trump’s financial information until the Supreme Court decides how it wants to handle the dispute.
Monday’s order follows an Oct. 11 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that upheld a House subpoena to Mazars USA LLP for Trump’s financial information. The full D.C. Circuit affirmed that ruling on a 8-3 vote, teeing up an appeal to the high court.
Roberts issued the order because he hears emergency matters arising from the D.C. Circuit. Though the justices generally refer meritorious requests for emergency relief to the full court, they occasionally issue unilateral short-term stays pending further review. Such stays are quite common in last-minute death penalty appeals, for example.
House Democrats indicated earlier in the day that they would not oppose a brief stay. House general counsel Douglas Letter told the justices that the Oversight Committee would consent to a 10-day stay of the D.C. Circuit’s decision Monday morning.
This is breaking news. This post will be updated.
