SCOTUS stays order requiring Trump's accounting firm to give his financial records to House
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The U.S. Supreme Court issued Monday a stay of a federal appeals court mandate requiring President Donald Trump’s accounting firm to give Congress financial records relating to Trump and his businesses.
The stay halts an order last month by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, report the Washington Post, the New York Times and Just Security.
The Supreme Court order says the mandate is stayed until a cert petition is filed and, if the case is accepted, until a decision is issued.
The court set a Dec. 5 deadline for a cert petition, which is a “speedy briefing schedule,” according to the New York Times.
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform had subpoenaed the records for the years 2011 through 2018 from Mazars USA in an investigation into amending the Ethics in Government Act, the law that governs financial disclosures.
The committee had sought the information after Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, said in congressional testimony that he thought that Trump inflated his assets when it served his purposes and deflated his assets in other situations. The case is Trump v. Mazars USA.
A cert petition in a second case involving Mazars is pending before the Supreme Court. In that case, Trump v. Vance, a New York grand jury subpoenaed Trump’s tax records from Mazars. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New York ruled against Trump in that case.
The records sought in the New York case would remain secret because they are for a grand jury, making the case less important than the congressional subpoena case, according to Just Security.
A third pending case, Trump v. House Committee on Financial Services, hasn’t yet reached the Supreme Court. The 2nd Circuit is currently considering Trump’s challenge to subpoenas issued to Trump’s banks by two House committees. The subpoena seeks financial records for Trump and two of his children.
