Trump’s day of double trouble
Two bad rulings for Don
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump has received two separate legal blows on the same day, as the Supreme Court ruled he must release his tax returns after years of trying to hide them and also set a trial date for him and his three eldest children on fraud charges.
The court rejected Mr Trump’s last-ditch attempt to block the release of his tax returns to a congressional committee, after a three-year legal battle by the former president to shield his financial records from public view.
The order finally clears the way for the Treasury Department to hand over six years of tax returns for Mr Trump and some of his businesses to the Democrat-controlled Ways and Means Committee, which has been seeking the documents since 2019.
Mr Trump, who announced last week that he was running for president again in 2024, appealed to the Supreme Court last month after a lower court declined to reverse its ruling ordering the release of the documents to congress.
Democrats have called for Mr Trump to release his tax returns since the 2016 presidential election. Although not required by law, it has become customary for presidents of both parties to disclose their full financial information.
Mr Trump was the first president to break with this tradition and has fought to keep details of his personal wealth and business affairs secret. Reports suggested that he paid little or no tax in some years, applied for massive tax refunds and inflated his wealth.
Former Trump associates claimed his business had secured loans from foreign countries, including Russia.
Mr Trump has for years used the excuse of being audited to explain why he couldn’t release his tax returns, despite there being no law stopping him from doing so under audit.
The ruling came as the Manhattan Supreme Court ruled Mr Trump and three of his children will go on trial late next year in a civil lawsuit brought by New York’s Attorney-General that accuses them of fraud.
Justice Arthur Engoron set a trial date of October 2, 2023, in the case that alleges Mr Trump and his family members misstated property values to enrich themselves.
The trial – and a host of criminal, civil and congressional probe cases that Mr Trump is facing – will likely complicate the ex-president’s run for a second term in office.
The trial date, which Mr Trump’s lawyers are likely to try to delay, would come close to the start of primaries season for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Top New York prosecutor Letitia James says Mr Trump, Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump lied to tax collectors, lenders and insurers for years.
The Attorney-General accuses them of providing fraudulent statements of Trump’s net worth and false asset valuations “to obtain and satisfy loans, get insurance benefits, and pay lower taxes”.