While dealing with the ongoing impeachment inquiry from House Democrats, President Donald Trump’s standing was dealt another blow this week when as part of a months-long case, a D.C.-area federal appeals court upheld a subpoena from Congress for his tax returns. He’s spent years hiding these documents from the public, which has broken with precedent and, more recently, thwarted Congressional investigators trying to probe allegations of fraud. In another twist, the case that could finally get the material to investigators could very well soon see a ruling from none other than Merrick Garland, the D.C. Circuit Court judge who Barack Obama nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court but Republicans blocked.
At present, the next available options for the case including a hearing with all of the judges that sit on the D.C. appeals court rather than the ordinary three-judge panel like ruled in the House’s favor this past week. That hearing would presumably include Garland, who leads the court.
Discussing the issue this week on MSNBC, former prosecutor Glenn Kirschner commented:
‘You know what? He was done wrong… He also is renowned for being a fair, circumspect, thoughtful jurist, and I have every confidence that he will divorce all of his experience, some might say his mistreatment from his mind. He’ll saw the legal wood in front of him and decide the issue based only on the merits of the arguments.’
Besides the option of a hearing with the full D.C. appeals court, there’s also the option of a further appeal of the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Although that court currently leans conservative thanks to the two appointments Trump has made, they would still have to find some compelling reason to overturn an only growing list of lower court rulings all in favor of the House. They might not even take up the case, if pressed.
Meanwhile, Trump himself has proven primarily focused on the impeachment inquiry that House Democrats have launched into his behavior in the time since that original April subpoena from the House Oversight Committee for his tax returns. In other words, this is just one of many problems for him, although they represent progress for those concerned about his belligerence.
Some of the most recent developments in that case include the sudden arrest this past week of two associates of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. These associates — Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman — helped run a massive scheme to sneak upwards of $1 million at a time from interests like a Russian businessman to U.S. political candidates.
Trump has shown signs of being ready to throw Giuliani under the bus, although this Saturday he did take to Twitter to defend the former NYC mayor, complaining after House Democrats subpoenaed him and reporting circulated about a federal investigation into his business:
‘Such a one sided Witch Hunt going on in USA. Deep State. Shameful!’
Still, there was a time when he was all smiles (at least publicly) when it came to his now jailed former fixer Michael Cohen too.
Featured Image via screenshot
