The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to issue a ruling on whether congressional committees can have access to Trump’s financial records, instead punting it back to a lower court and keeping access from House Democrats on hold for now.
In a separate ruling, the justices rejected arguments that the President is immune to investigation while he holds office or that a prosecutor need show special circumstances to obtain his tax records.
The Associated Press reports:
“By 7-2 votes, the justices upheld the Manhattan district attorney’s demand for Trump’s tax returns, but kept a hold on Trump’s financial records that Congress has been seeking for more than a year.”
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What It Means
The House Oversight Committee had subpoenaed Mazars USA, an accounting firm, for access to Trump’s financial documents, which included personal records and records of various affiliated businesses.
The documents included the President’s tax returns, a long sought after holy grail for Democrats seeking to find or invent a crime.
Congressional committees had also subpoenaed Deutsche Bank and Capital One for other financial records.
Chief Justice John Roberts, in his written opinion, argued that these committees have limits.
“Without limits on its subpoena powers, Congress could ‘exert an imperious control’ over the Executive Branch and aggrandize itself at the President’s expense, just as the Framers feared,” he opined.
Roberts though, Fox News reports, “left open the possibility that House Democrats, after further proceedings in lower courts, could get ahold of the president’s documents.”
In the other case, Democratic Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s demand for Trump’s tax returns was upheld. It should be noted, however, that grand jury investigations are confidential, meaning his taxes normally would not be made public.
But we don’t live in normal times. Does anybody doubt that a resistance warrior involved with the investigation would illegally leak the information?
The Supreme Court sends case back to Lower Court, arguments to continue. This is all a political prosecution. I won the Mueller Witch Hunt, and others, and now I have to keep fighting in a politically corrupt New York. Not fair to this Presidency or Administration!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2020
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Reaction
President Trump was most decidedly not pleased with the Supreme Court’s ruling in the least.
“This is all a political prosecution. I won the Mueller Witch Hunt, and others, and now I have to keep fighting in a politically corrupt New York,” he tweeted. “Not fair to this Presidency or Administration!”
Trump’s personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, took a slightly more optimistic approach in his response.
Sekulow said he was happy the “Supreme Court has temporarily blocked both Congress and New York prosecutors from obtaining the President’s financial records.”
“We will now proceed to raise additional Constitutional and legal issues in the lower courts,” he added.
Congressional Democrats’ relentless pursuit of Trump’s tax records without knowing if there is anything damning in them, wasting time and money in the courts, is seemingly the one thing they’ve accomplished since he took office.
