Supreme Court rejects Trump’s request to shield tax returns from House Democrats
(CNN)President Donald Trump on Friday asked the Supreme Court to allow him to keep his tax returns from being turned over to the House Oversight Committee, his latest attempt to thwart the investigation.
In late April, Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen told Congress that the President’s returns would be made available to the committee “in coming weeks.”
In July, the Supreme Court allowed Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to release his tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee, but only a handful of pages at a time and only after Trump and Cohen agreed to a confidentiality waiver.
Trump, however, has refused to waive his confidentiality concerns. And in this case, the Court asked the Treasury Department and the Trump Organization to provide more information about the confidentiality rules, noting that they have not publicly explained them.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh was the deciding vote, with justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito writing a concurring opinion.
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‘Unusual and extraordinary’: Trump says tax returns’should never have been made public’
In an unusual and extraordinary move, Trump is asking the Supreme Court to intervene.
“President Trump is asking the Supreme Court to order him to disclose his tax returns — just like every other American citizen, including millions upon millions of other small businesses and many multinational companies — on the grounds that they contain’sensitive and private data.'”
“I believe our Constitution must permit this unprecedented use of our judicial power to prevent public scrutiny of government actions.”
The Court is currently considering a similar request, from former director of the FBI James Comey, Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen and a handful of others. The House Oversight Committee has voted to hold a separate hearing on the matter.
Trump said Thursday that if he does not get the tax returns back and he feels “obliged” to release them in the public interest, he would do so. He said the returns have nothing to do with his 2016 campaign and “everything to do with me when I was a private citizen.”
“I think a lot of