TRUMP TO CONTINUE LEGAL FIGHT OVER TAX RETURNS

Days after the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a defeat to President Donald Trump, clearing the way for the Manhattan district attorney to seek his tax returns, his lawyers Wednesday renewed their efforts to block or at least narrow access to the records.

Trump’s lawyers wrote to the federal judge in Manhattan who originally presided over the case, saying they planned to argue that the district attorney’s subpoena seeking eight years of his corporate and personal tax returns was too broad and politically motivated.

The filing came less than a week after the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s previous argument: that the subpoena was invalid because a sitting president could not be criminally investigated.

In the new filing, Trump’s lawyers noted that the high court’s decision allowed him to raise other objections: that the subpoena was “motivated by a desire to harass or is conducted in bad faith” and that it would impede his constitutional duties.

The president and the district attorney, Cyrus Vance, a Democrat, have been locked in a battle over the records for almost a year.

The district attorney issued the subpoena to the president’s accounting firm in August, seeking the records as part of an investigation into hush-money payments made to an adult film actress who said she had an affair with Trump. The president has denied the affair.

Trump fought the request for his financial records, arguing that presidents were immune from state criminal investigations.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court rejected his position by a 7-2 vote, but it left open the possibility that he could raise new arguments against Vance’s subpoena in the lower court.

No matter who ultimately wins the battle, it is unlikely that Trump’s financial records will become public anytime soon. If they are turned over to prosecutors, they will remain shielded under grand jury secrecy and may emerge only if charges are brought and they are introduced as evidence at a trial.