Trump's Finances: Will voters ever get answers?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S MOST JEALOUSLY guarded secrets—his financial records, including tax returns—will probably remain hidden from voters until after the next election.
That’s just one likely consequence of the U.S. Supreme Court’s red-letter decision last month to hear three cases, involving five subpoenas, seeking those records. Though the justices will hear arguments in March and rule by next June—several months before we go to the polls—it seems increasingly doubtful that they will order a quick, clean turnover of the president’s crown jewels.
Rather, the court’s decision to review these cases signals that 92 years of legal precedent concerning the investigative powers of Congress may be due for an overhaul. Precisely what will emerge is anyone’s guess, except that it will be momentous.
The subpoenas, issued by three congressional committees and a state grand jury in Manhattan, seek the records of Trump, his three oldest children—Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric—the Trump Organization and a dense tangle of affiliated business entities. (These subpoenas were all issued before the House commenced a formal impeachment inquiry this fall. The House impeached Trump on December 18.)
Since 1927, when the court decided a case stemming from the Teapot Dome Scandal of the Harding administration, the law in this area has been fairly clear. Congress has had broad investigative leeway to inform its legislative functions. So long as it could articulate a “legislative purpose” for
