Top court clears way for release of Trump’s tax returns
Donald Trump yesterday suffered a major setback in his long quest to conceal details of his finances as the US Supreme Court paved the way for a New York City prosecutor to obtain the former president’s tax returns and other records as part of an accelerating criminal investigation.
The justices without comment rebuffed Trump’s request to put on hold an October 7 lower court ruling directing the Republican businessman-turned-politician’s longtime accounting firm, Mazars USA, to comply with a subpoena to turn over the materials to a grand jury convened by Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance, a Democrat.
“The work continues,” Vance said in a statement issued after the court’s action. Vance had previously said in a letter to Trump’s lawyers that his office would be free to immediately enforce the subpoena if the justices rejected Trump’s request.
A Mazars spokesman said the company was aware of the court’s action and “remains committed to fulfilling all of our professional and legal obligations.” A lawyer for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Supreme Court’s action, coming soon after Vance’s hiring of a prominent lawyer with deep experience in white-collar and organised-crime cases, could boost the district attorney’s investigation into Trump’s family real-estate company, the Trump Organisation, following a flurry of recent subpoenas.
Vance’s office had subpoenaed a New York City property tax agency as part of the investigation, suggesting prosecutors are examining Trump’s efforts to reduce his commercial real-estate taxes for possible evidence of fraud.
The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority included three Trump appointees, had already ruled once in the subpoena dispute, last July rejecting Trump’s broad argument that he was immune from criminal probes as a sitting president.
Unlike all other recent US presidents, Trump refused during his four years in office to make his tax returns public. The data could provide details on his wealth and the Trump Organisation’s activities. Trump, who left office on January 20 after being defeated in his November 3 re-election bid by Democrat Joe Biden, continues to face an array of legal issues concerning personal and business conduct.
Vance issued a subpoena to Mazars in 2019 seeking Trump’s corporate and personal tax returns from 2011 to 2018.
Trump’s lawyers sued to block the subpoena, arguing that as a sitting president, Trump had absolute immunity from state criminal investigations.
The Supreme Court in its July ruling rejected those arguments but said Trump could raise other objections to the subpoena.
Trump’s lawyers then argued before lower courts that the subpoena was overly broad and amounted to political harassment.
US district judge Victor Marrero in August and the New York-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in October rejected those claims.
Vance’s investigation initially focused on hush money payments that the then-president’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen made before the 2016 election to two women – adultfilm actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
The court yesterday separately turned away Daniels’ bid to revive her defamation lawsuit against Trump.