Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily blocks House Democrats from getting Trump tax records
CBSDec 23, 2022
The Facts
On Tuesday, SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily blocked the House Ways and Means Committee from obtaining former Pres. Trump’s tax returns — as scheduled on Thursday — until the full court can rule on the matter.
Roberts gave the committee until Nov. 10 to respond to Trump’s petition, which argued that the committee seeks to release the returns "to the public" without legislative reasons, adding that releasing them could undermine the executive branch's powers.
The Spin
Pro-Trump narrative
SCOTUS must block the Democrats’ access to Trump’s tax returns. All they're doing is fishing for dirt without any genuine legislative reasons. With the elections fast approaching and looking to favor Republicans, there's no wonder they wanted them released this week.
Democratic narrative
Even the conservative-majority SCOTUS hasn’t been receptive to the former president’s attempts to keep records from the public or avoid investigation. Lower courts have already established that the committee holds a valid legislative purpose for seeking the returns, and, despite this minor setback, Trump can't avoid scrutiny indefinitely.
