Trump asks justices to bar release of his tax returns
WASHINGTON — President Trump asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to bar his accounting firm from turning over eight years of his tax returns to Manhattan prosecutors.
The case, the first concerning Trump’s personal conduct and business dealings to reach the court, could yield a major ruling on the scope of presidential immunity from criminal investigations.
Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for Trump, said a federal appeals court had committed a grave legal error in allowing the accounting firm to provide the tax records.
“We are hopeful that the Supreme Court will grant review in this significant constitutional case and reverse the dangerous and damaging decision of the appeals court,” Sekulow said in a statement.
In their petition urging the Supreme Court to hear their appeal, Trump’s lawyers argued that he was immune from all criminal proceedings and investigations so long as he remained in office. But even if some federal investigations may be proper, the petition said, the Supreme Court should rule that state and local prosecutors may not seek information about a sitting president’s conduct.
“That the Constitution would empower thousands of state and local prosecutors to embroil the president in criminal proceedings is unimaginable,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
Much of the petition was devoted to a plea that the justices hear the case. If they turn it down, the accounting firm has indicated that it will supply the requested records.
Last week, a unanimous threejudge panel of a federal appeals court in Manhattan ruled against Trump. The court, in a focused ruling, said state prosecutors may require third parties to turn over a sitting president’s financial records for use in grand jury investigation.
Trump has fought vigorously to shield his financial records, and prosecutors in Manhattan have agreed not to seek the tax returns until the case is resolved by the Supreme Court. In exchange, they insisted on a very quick briefing schedule, one that would allow the court to announce whether it will hear the case as soon as next month and to issue a decision by June, as the presidential election enters its final stages.