Panel rules against Trump on tax returns

NEW YORK — A federal appeals panel said Monday that President Donald Trump’s accounting firm must turn over eight years of his personal and corporate tax returns to Manhattan prosecutors, a setback for the president’s attempt to keep his financial records private.

The case, which has raised new questions about presidential power, now appears headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Soon after the ruling, one of the president’s personal lawyers, Jay Sekulow, said

Trump will appeal to the high court.

Trump has fought vigorously to shield his financial records, and prosecutors have agreed not to seek the tax returns until the case is resolved by the Supreme Court.

In its ruling, the three-judge appeals panel did not take a position on the president’s biggest argument: that he is immune from all criminal investigations. A lower court had called that argument “repugnant to the nation’s governmental structure and constitutional values.”

Instead, the appeals court said the president’s accounting firm, not Trump himself, was subpoenaed for the documents, so it did not matter whether presidents have immunity.

“We emphasize again the narrowness of the issue before us,” the decision read. “This appeal does not require us to consider whether the president is immune from indictment and prosecution while in office, nor to consider whether the president may lawfully be ordered to produce documents for use in a state criminal proceeding.”

Judge Robert A. Katzmann noted in the unanimous ruling that Trump had conceded that his immunity would last only as long as he held office and he could therefore be prosecuted after stepping down.

“There is no obvious reason why a state could not begin to investigate a president during his term and, with the information secured during that search, ultimately determine to prosecute him after he leaves office,” Katzmann wrote for the panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The legal fight began in late August after the office of the Manhattan district attorney subpoenaed Trump’s accounting firm for his tax returns and those of his family business dating to 2011.