Trump Runs Through The Tape To Keep Tax Returns Away From Congressional Dems

He'll release his taxes one day. Probably during infrastructure week.

Donald Trump has thrown yet another Hail Mary pass to the Supreme Court this afternoon, asking Chief Justice John Roberts, who presides over the DC Circuit, to block release of his tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee.

Why are we still talking about Donald Trump's damn tax returns in 2022? Good question! Probably because whatever's in there is really, really bad. But proximately, we're talking about them because, absent intervention from the Supreme Court, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richie Neal is going to get his hands on them this coming Thursday November 3.

See, in 2019 when Dems took back the House, they immediately moved to get Trump's tax returns citing §6103 of the Internal Revenue Code, which states that, "Upon written request from the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, the chairman of the Committee on Finance of the Senate, or the chairman of the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Secretary shall furnish such committee with any return or return information specified in such request."  

The language of the statute is unambiguous, and yet Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin refused to comply, claiming to have looked into Neal's soul and found no legitimate legislative purpose therein. After which the Ways and Means Committee sued the Treasury, Trump filed a cross complaint against Treasury and the IRS seeking to enjoin them from handing over the documents, and they all headed into US District Judge Trevor McFadden's courtroom to make their case.

Now Judge McFadden is an extremely Trump-y Trump appointee, and even he wasn't buying Trump's bullshit. Because Ways and Means unquestionably has oversight into the presidential audit program, and the judiciary isn't going to go psychoanalyzing the legislative branch when Congress puts forward a facially valid justification for its actions.

"But even if the former President is right on the facts, he is wrong on the law," McFadden wrote in December. "A long line of Supreme Court cases requires great deference to facially valid congressional inquiries. Even the special solicitude accorded former Presidents does not alter the outcome. The Court will therefore dismiss this case."

Trump appealed, because delay is the name of the game here, and he managed to hold off the DC Circuit until August, when it ordered him to cough that shit up . Then last week the full court declined en banc review. And so we find ourselves again with Trump begging Neil, Brett, and Amy to link arms with Sam and Clarence to do him a solid and make this thing go away. Or, hell, they don't have to do anything, really! Just issue a stay and put the case on the calendar for winter — at which point Kevin can take back the speaker's gavel and shitcan the whole thing, mooting the case.

"No Congress has ever wielded its legislative powers to demand a President’s tax returns. As the district court put it, '[w]e are in uncharted territory,'” Trump's lawyers argue .

Which is true, as far as it goes. But it omits the reality that every presidential candidate in the modern era EXCEPT DONALD TRUMP released his or her tax returns, so no one had to go suing to get them. There's also the teensy issue that only Donald Trump was leasing space from the federal government for his private business. Anyway!

Trump goes on to insist that the Circuit Court was wrong in its legal analysis, but, even if the Justices ultimately decide that the Circuit Court was right, the lower appellate court shouldn't be the last word on the matter: "Simply put, this Court should be the one setting precedent to guide those disputes." And if that just so happens to moot the issue entirely by running out the clock, well, that's a win for judicial economy!

He's also hoping that the court will fill in the deficiencies in his pleading with the “special solicitude” accorded to former Presidents bringing “claims alleging a threatened breach of essential Presidential prerogatives under the separation of powers.” In other words, he wants special treatment because DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?

Expect the Chief Justice to issue a brief administrative stay to refer the issue to the wider court to determine if broader injunctive relief is warranted. We should infer nothing from this, other than that Chief Justice Roberts is doing his colleagues the courtesy of consulting them on an issue they may wish to weigh in on. But if they do decide to take this dumb turkey of a case for real, that will be some majorly corrupt bullshit.

We'll keep you posted!

[ Supreme Court Docket / District Court Docket via Court Listener]

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