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Nov. 18 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court Monday granted President Donald Trump's longtime accounting firm Mazars USA a temporary stay on a lower court's order to release his tax returns to Congress. Chief Justice John Roberts signed the temporary stay order, which requires the House Committee on Oversight and Reform to respond by Thursday.
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House Democrats had said earlier in the day in a letter that they would not oppose a 10-day administrative stay to allow the court time to consider arguments on both sides and that it would file a response by Friday.
On Wednesday, a full federal appeals court sided with an earlier court's ruling that Trump must comply with the House oversight committee's subpoena for Mazars USA to hand over eight years of his financial records. By Friday, Trump had asked the Supreme Court to intervene and his legal team had applied for the stay.
Trump did not release his tax returns while running for president in 2016, breaking with decades of precedent.
The oversight committee has argued that Trump's returns are needed to update ethics-in-government legislation. Trump's attorneys have argued in court papers the move is counter to the Constitution's separation of powers.
Trump also appealed to the Supreme Court last week in a separate battle over his tax returns. In that battle, the president is seeking to block a Manhattan grand jury subpoena to provide eight years of his N.Y. state tax returns from the same accounting firm to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.
Vance is seeking the returns to investigate hush money payments he says Trump paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels and Playboy centerfold Karen McDougal to keep news of their extramarital affairs secret. The Supreme Court justices have not yet decided whether they will consider that case.
The appellate court noted Vance's subpoena is lawful since it's directed at Mazars USA and seeks private tax returns and financial information related to Trump's private business, not his official capacity as president.
