The move came after the House Oversight and Reform Committee filed a letter agreeing to give the President's legal team extra time to deal with the case.
Without such action, the appeals court order for the President's accounting firm, Mazar's, to produce the financial documents requested by Congress would have taken effect on Wednesday.
The move by the Chief Justice was what is known as an 'administrative stay' - not really getting to the merits of the matter.
"This is a totally standard procedural move, nothing more," tweeted Steve Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas.
It's likely the broader issues could be considered at a regularly scheduled conference meeting on Friday, where the Justices consider whether to take up certain cases before the High Court.
Not a surprise. In order to consider the cert petition they had to issue a stay otherwise the docs would go over and that would moot the matter. This has no bearing on whether SCOTUS will take up the petition. https://t.co/L8rPuVIx8V
— Jennifer Rodgers (@JenGRodgers) November 18, 2019
The Supreme Court has several options - the Justices could allow the lower court ruling to stand, which ordered Mazar's to abide by the subpoena, and turn over the President's documents.
Or, the Justices could decide to hold a special set of arguments on the case.
President Trump's legal team has already asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and block a similar subpoena from prosecutors in New York City, who are also seeking the President's financial records from Mazar.
Re: subpoena for his tax returns, Trump legal team files 179 page brief arguing that "he is absolutely immune from all stages of state criminal process while in office" https://t.co/jqazNpkk4g pic.twitter.com/wsqFFUAQeb
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) November 14, 2019
The Supreme Court has not taken any action with respect to that New York case.
As for the matter involving the House Oversight Committee, lower courts have ruled against the President's bid to block a subpoena to his accounting firm as well.
In the New York case, the President's lawyers told the Supreme Court last week that Mr. Trump has 'absolute immunity' from any criminal investigation while in office.
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