(Washington Examiner) Former President Donald Trump suffered a stunning string of court setbacks this week, a clear indication that his legal woes won’t disappear after launching his 2024 bid for the White House.
Some had previously speculated that Trump timed his campaign announcement in a bid to shield himself from said legal issues, with hopes that prosecutors and investigators would loosen their investigations to avoid being accused of cracking down on Trump for political reasons.
All in a matter of hours, Tuesday delivered Trump losses in his ongoing battle against the House Ways and Means Committee regarding his taxes, a prolonged abuse and defamation lawsuit raised by author E. Jean Carroll, the New York attorney general’s fraud investigation into the Trump Organization, and the Department of Justice’s investigation into Trump’s handling of White House materials after leaving office.
Two of those matters, the Carroll suits and Ways and Means tax probe, date back to 2019 and received a jolt of life Tuesday afternoon. First, the Supreme Court denied Trump’s final request to block the House committee from accessing his tax returns, prompting the former president to lash out on his social media platform, Truth Social.
“Why would anybody be surprised that the Supreme Court has ruled against me, they always do!” Trump wrote in a post. “It is unprecedented to be handing over Tax Returns, & it creates terrible precedent for future Presidents. Has Joe Biden paid taxes on all of the money he made illegally from Hunter & beyond.”
Furthermore, Carroll’s attorneys announced their intent to file a new battery and defamation civil suit against Trump following the implementation of New York’s new adult survivors law.
Meanwhile, Justice Arthur Engoron, who is hearing New York Attorney General Letitia James’s $250 million fraud case against Trump’s business, put an end to nearly three years of delay tactics on Trump’s part.
“You can’t keep making the same arguments after you’ve already lost,” Engoron reportedly told Trump’s legal team and set a trial date for Oct. 2, 2023, just months before Republican voters would begin casting votes in the presidential primary.
