Former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Thursday that Republicans would find out if the battle to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was “worth it” if Democrats subpoena President Trump’s tax returns.
Gingrich said that Democratic lawmakers would be “trapped into appealing to the Supreme Court” if they attempted to gain access to Trump’s tax returns.
{mosads}”And we’ll see whether or not the Kavanaugh fight was worth it,” he said at a Washington Post event, adding that Trump does not appear to have any fear about the Democratic party’s ability to investigate.
His comments come less than a month after Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court following a bitter confirmation process in which he was accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women.
Kavanaugh has fiercely denied the allegations.
His entrance onto the court represented a significant moment for the bench, with Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan saying earlier this month that it’s not clear that the court would have a justice in the “middle” position anymore.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has said that demanding Trump’s tax returns would be one of the first things the party does if its earns back a majority in the House after the midterm elections.
Democrats need to flip at least 23 seats in the lower chamber to retake a majority and polls have shown that they have a solid chance.
“That’s the easiest thing in the world. That’s nothing,” Pelosi said to the San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial board when asked about the tax returns, adding that the action would represent Congress exercising its oversight role over the president.
Multiple Democratic lawmakers have vowed to find a way to disclose Trump’s tax returns.
Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has argued that the American public deserves to know “whether or not a president is serving his interests or the public’s interests.”