Trump continues fight over tax records
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump intends to fight the Manhattan district attorney’s effort to access his tax records after last week’s defeat at the Supreme Court, and may argue now that attempts to subpoena his accounting firm are politically motivated, Trump’s lawyers told a judge Wednesday.
The nation’s highest court rejected Trump’s bid to have the grand jury subpoena tossed on grounds that, as sitting president, he has absolute immunity from state court proceedings. The Supreme Court decision favored efforts by Manhattan District Attorney
Cyrus Vance, whose office is investigating Trump and his business over hush money payments made to two women during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Lawyers for Vance’s office, which faces a looming statute-oflimitations deadline should he decide to pursue a felony case, said in Wednesday’s joint filing that the district attorney could enforce the subpoena immediately but would give the president until July 27 to file his new claims before doing so.
The Supreme Court, in its 7-2 decision, left open a door for Trump to pursue other avenues in his attempt to kill the subpoena. Trump’s lawyers indicated Wednesday in the memo to U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero that “further proceedings are necessary” and that an amended lawsuit seeking to block the subpoena would be filed soon.
Marrero, who initially handled the lawsuit, had ordered both parties to detail whether litigation would continue. As a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling, Trump is barred only from bringing up the presidential immunity issue, which is now considered settled. He could argue instead that Vance’s request to accounting firm Mazars is too broad, amounting to a “fishing expedition,” or that it was issued in “bad faith” with an ulterior motive, the filing says, citing the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Vance is investigating whether the Trump Organization falsified business records to conceal the hush-money payments. The two women involved — pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal — alleged before the 2016 election that they had had affairs with Trump years prior. The president has denied the allegations.
Wednesday’s filing hints that there could be a battle over whether Vance should have to disclose more information about his work. “The President should not be required, for example, to litigate the subpoena’s breadth or whether it was issued in bad faith without understanding the nature and scope of the investigation and why the District Attorney needs all of the documents he has demanded,”
Trump lawyer William Consovoy wrote.
Carey Dunne, the district attorney’s general counsel, said that even if the president’s new civil complaint survives a dismissal motion, “discovery into the District Attorney’s motives would be highly irregular and inappropriate.”
Trump is also seeking to delay new proceedings on technical grounds, arguing that the Supreme Court has not formally sent the case back to the Southern District of New York. Under federal guidelines, it typically takes 25 days for a case to be transferred.
Marrero has scheduled a conference with both sides’ lawyers for Thursday morning.