US appeals court: Trump must turn over taxes in probe
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump’s accountant must turn over his tax records to a New York state prosecutor, an appeals court ruled Wednesday in a decision that likely sets up a second trip to the U.S. Supreme Court over the issue.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said in a written decision that a stay of a lower-court decision will remain in effect so Trump’s lawyers can appeal the ruling to the high court.
In August, a district judge had rejected their renewed efforts to invalidate a subpoena that the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. issued to Trump’s accounting firm last year.
Part of Vance’s probe pertains to an investigation related to payoffs to two women — porn actress Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal — to keep them quiet during the 2016 presidential campaign about alleged extramarital affairs with Trump. Trump has denied the affairs.
Vance is seeking more than eight years of the Republican president’s personal and corporate tax records, but has disclosed little about what prompted him to request the records. In one recent court filing, Vance’s lawyers said he was justified in demanding them because of public reports of “extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization.”
A Justice Department spokesperson said the department was reviewing the ruling.
The Supreme Court in July ruled 7-2 against the presi dent, re j e c t i ng Trump’s arguments that he can’t even be investigated, let alone charged with any crime, while he is in office. But the court said Trump can challenge the subpoena on other grounds, like anyone else who receives a subpoena.
The likelihood that the taxes would be released was unlikely to be resolved before the November election, especially since the high court is down to eight justices after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And any release would not result in immediate public disclosures, since grand jury proceedings are secret.
Consumer borrowing:
U.S. consumers cut back on their borrowing in August, with credit card use dropping for a sixth straight month, reflecting caution in the midst of the pandemictriggered recession.
The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that total borrowing fell by $7.2 billion after a gain of $14.7 billion in July. It was the biggest decline since a $12 billion fall in May when pandemicdriven shutdowns ground the economy to a near standstill.
The weakness in August came from a $9.4 billion fall in the category that covers credit cards, the sixth decline in that area starting with a $25.4 billion drop in March.
Consumer borrowing is closely followed for signals it can send about households’ willingness to take on more debt to support their spending, which accounts for 70% of economic activity.
Islamic State charges:
Two Islamic State militants from Britain were brought to the United States on
Wednesday to face charges in a gruesome campaign of torture, beheadings and other acts of violence against four Americans and others captured and held hostage in Syria, the Justice Department said.
El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey are two of four men who were called “the Beatles” by the hostages because of the captors’ British accents. The two men were expected to make their first appearance Wednesday afternoon in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, where a federal grand jury issued an eightcount indictment that accuses them of being “leading participants in a brutal hostage-taking scheme” that resulted in the deaths of Western hostages, including American journalist James Foley.
The charges are a milestone in a yearslong effort by U.S. authorities to bring to justice members of the group known for beheadings and barbaric treatment of aid workers, journalists and other hostages in Syria. Startling for their unflinching depictions of cruelty and violence, recordings of the murders were released online in the form of propaganda for a group that at its peak controlled vast swaths of Syria and Iraq.
A migrant worker was burned to death in the Libyan capital, U.N. and government officials said Wednesday, the latest in abuses that migrants and refuges face in the conflict-stricken country.
The Interior Ministry of the U.N.-supported government said three Libyans on Tuesday stormed a factory in the Tripoli neighborhood of Tajoura, where African migrants were working. The Libyans detained one the workers, a Nigerian, poured gasoline on him and set him on fire, the ministry said in a statement. No motive for the shocking crime was given.
The alleged perpetrators were arrested and referred to prosecutors for investigation, the ministry said.
Migrant worker killed:
2 guilty in mall attack:
A
Kenyan court on Wednesday found two men guilty for supporting the dayslong 2013 attack on Nairobi’s upscale Westgate Mall that left 67 people dead.
Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi acquitted a third suspect.
The attack by four gunmen with the Somaliabased extremist group alShabab was the first largescale assault in Kenya’s capital. Al-Shabab had vowed retribution on Kenya for sending troops in 2011 to fight the group in Somalia.
Lockdown violation? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife may have violated the country’s coronavirus lockdown by inviting a hairdresser into the official residence last week to prepare her for a public service video advocating the wearing of masks.
The incident, first reported by the Yediot Ahronot daily, was the latest in a string of lockdown violations by Israeli leaders and public figures — drawing widespread criticism that they are undermining public trust in the government.
Yediot reported that Sara Netanyahu had a hairdresser visit on the eve of the festive Sukkot holiday. Hair salons and barber shops are closed as part of a nationwide lockdown imposed last month, and people have been ordered to remain within 1,000 yards of home except for essential activities.
Virus in U.K.: The Scottish government ordered pubs in Scotland’s two biggest cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh, to close and restricted food and drink business in the rest of the country as Britain seeks to control a surge in coronavirus cases. The U.K. government is mulling whether to follow suit and tighten restrictions for England.
Like other European countries, Britain has seen a second wave of coronavirus infections since pubs and restaurants reopened, children went back to school, and students returned to university.