The dominoes are set. And Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts will be in a rare position that could end or salvage democracy in America. Now that there is a ruling on the House suit requiring Trump’s accounting firm Mazars USA to release the tax returns for both Trump and his businesses, the case will head straight to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
And, ironically enough, the judge that will next rule on this is Merrick Garland. There is little doubt that he will sustain the lower court ruling and Trump’s lawyers will take the matter to the Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Roberts will have a lot to consider when this case reaches him, both short and long term. He would be expected by Republican leadership to take the case, and through a party-line 5 to 4 vote prevent the incriminating taxes from seeing the light of day.
This might make Roberts a hero for now within the GOP, but history is not likely to look so favorably on him. To make that call, Roberts needs to bet his reputation and his entire legacy on whether the current cycle of #RepubloFascism will prevail for another generation. To make that call, he must gamble that all the illegal and immoral abuses of power by Republicans will not be turned back and exposed for decades.
To make that call, Roberts must bet on the destruction of American democracy for good. He must root for a “Sovietizing” of America where one-party rule, and the changes in political infrastructure to sustain it, becomes complete. Then law and morality will be of little consequence.
And if he loses that bet, he will be seen as the catalyst that insures a #BlueTsunami in 2020 that will likely see him be impeached himself for this precise ruling.
On the other hand, Roberts can choose to go by what the law demands. The case has no merit. The subpoenas issued to Mazars USA by the House cannot be ignored through executive privilege or any other grounds.
The thing for Roberts to do is simple, for his legacy, for actual justice, and perhaps even for minimizing the damage to the Republican Party: refuse to take case. A Supreme Court denial will mean the prior rulings stand, and the Trump taxes will head to Congress.
And as today’s article in Vanity Fair describes, the revelations are likely to be devastating to Trump, his businesses, and his entire family:
Back in March, a Washington Post exposé revealed that for many years, Donald Trump sent out financial statements that included lies so obvious that his accountants at Mazars USA put a warning label on them. Full of blatant, absurd attempts to exaggerate his wealth—adding 10 stories to Trump Tower, inventing an extra 800 acres at his Virginia vineyard—Mazars’ documents made sure to note that the figures were neither verified nor audited, and that readers “should recognize that they might reach different conclusions about the financial condition of Donald J. Trump” if they had more information, like that he was a pathological liar.
If the dominoes fall this way, supporting removal by impeachment for Republicans in the Senate would be an easier pill to swallow.
No doubt many have been looking for a method of #Trexit anyway that will cost them the least in political capital. Making the vehicle for Trump’s removal about money, lying, and cheating means not having to wade through all the Russian ties and obstruction of justice that congressional Republicans have so willfully ignored.
If #HumptyTrumpty falls in this way, Republicans currently in power will have the least egg on their faces.