Justices rule against Trump
Ex-president loses bid to shield tax returns; election challenge is also tossed
Former president Donald Trump received a dual defeat Monday at the Supreme Court, a body he transformed with his appointments and one he had long hoped would be a last line of defense in his battles with Congress and liberal Democrats.
The court refused Trump’s lastchance efforts to shield his private financial records from Manhattan’s district attorney in one case, and tossed out a slew of challenges to the presidential election and his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
None of the three justices Trump chose for the court — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — publicly objected to the subpoena seeking his assiduously guarded tax records, or concluded that his reelection defeat was tainted.
Now, Trump faces unprecedented legal peril for a former president. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s criminal investigation of Trump’s business dealings in New York will accelerate and broaden, and the former president faces similar scrutiny in Georgia for his efforts to subvert the election results there.
Trump previously had said the Supreme Court lacked “wisdom” and “courage” because of its refusal to take up challenges to the election. He responded to Monday’s order concerning his tax records with a statement referring to “the Continuing Political Persecution of President Donald J. Trump.”
“The Supreme Court never should have let this ‘fishing expedition’ happen, but they did,” Trump wrote. “This is something which has never happened to a President before, it is all Democrat-inspired in a totally Democrat location, New York City and State.”
Repeating the falsehood that he was reelected, Trump added: “I will fight on, just as I have, for the last five years (even before I was successfully elected), despite all of the election crimes that were committed against me. We will win!”
But the court’s one-sentence order, with no recorded dissents, appeared to quash Trump’s last chance to prevent the long-delayed disclosure of his financial records to Vance.
The only good news for Trump from the high court: It declined to revive a defamation suit filed against the president by adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who has said she had an affair with Trump many years ago — claims the former president denies.
Vance responded to Monday’s decision with a three-word tweet: “The work continues.”