The subpoena was issued earlier this year to Trump's accountants at Mazars USA by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
A federal appeals court on Friday rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to block a House committee subpoena for his income tax returns.
The subpoena was issued earlier this year to Trump’s accountants at Mazars USA by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
Trump currently is asking the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan to block another subpoena for his corporate and personal income tax returns that was issued by a state grand jury in New York City.
A federal appeals court in a split ruling Friday rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to block a subpoena for his income tax returns from the Democrat-controlled House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
The 2-1 ruling by the U.S Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a federal district court judge’s decision denying Trump’s effort to stop the House committee from getting his tax returns from the accounting firm Mazars USA.
Friday’s dissent came from Judge Neomi Rao, who was appointed by Trump to the DC appeals court.
The judges David Tatel and Patricia Millett voted to deny Trump’s appeal.
“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,” Tatel wrote in the majority opinion.
The ruling does not mean that Trump’s tax returns will immediately be released to the House committee, which had issued its subpoena for them on April 15.
The appeals panel ordered that the effect of the ruling be put on hold until seven days after the disposition of a petition for a rehearing of the case by either the same panel or for a rehearing of the case by the entire lineup of judges in the DC Circuit.
In addition to seeking a rehearing of the case at the D.C. Circuit Trump can ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take his appeal.
Neal Katyal, a former acting U.S. Solicitor General - the lawyer who argues for the federal government at the Supreme Corut - said on Twitter that Trump could have a tough time getting the high court to overturn the decision given the fact that a federal judge and a highly respected appeals court have both ruled for the House.
Trump currently is asking the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan to block another subpoena for his corporate and personal income tax returns that was issued by a state grand jury in New York City.
That other subpoena was sought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.
Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. is probing how the Trump Organization accounted for hush money payments paid before the 2016 presidential election to two women, porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, in exchange for their keeping quiet about their alleged affairs withTrump years earlier.
Trump has denied having sex with either woman.
A federal judge in Manhattan had dismissed Trump’s effort to block the DA’s subpoena. The 2nd Circuit is set to hear Trump’s appeal of that decision later this month.