Court blocks release of Trump tax returns

NEW YORK » A federal appeals court on Tuesday blocked a New York prosecutor from obtaining Donald

Trump’s tax returns while his lawyers continue to fight the subpoena seeking the records. The threejudge panel ruled after hearing brief arguments from both sides.

Trump’s lawyers had asked for a temporary stay while they appeal the lowercourt ruling that granted Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s office access to Trump’s tax returns. A lawyer for Vance’s office had argued that further delays would impede their investigation.

“The question at this juncture is quite simple but also quite important,” Trump lawyer William Consovoy

said. “Will the president be given an opportunity to appeal that ruling before his personal records are disclosed to the grand jury and the status quo is irrevocably changed?”

Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow said they were pleased with the ruling.

A hearing on the merits of Trump’s latest appeal will be held on Sept. 25 after both sides agreed to an expedited schedule.

Trump’s lawyers appealed to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month after a district court judge rejected their renewed efforts to invalidate the subpoena issued to his accounting firm.

Trump’s lawyers then argued that the subpoena was issued in bad faith and overly broad, might have been politically motivated and amounted to harassment. Marrero rejected those claims. Consovoy told the judges Tuesday that the investigation was an “arbitrary fishing expedition.”

Carey Dunne of the district attorney’s office said Trump and his lawyers have long misrepresented the scope of the investigation as focusing primarily on hush money payments that were paid to protect Trump from adultery allegations. Vance’s lawyers have said they are legally entitled to extensive records to aid a “complex financial investigation.”

“The president has complained at every turn that we’ve not announced what the grand jury is looking at as if that itself is bad faith,” Dunne said. “But of course, what the grand jury is looking at is secret. We’re not allowed to make that public, which is what has led to his speculation about the grand jury scope. But none of this speculation is plausible.”

Even if Vance does get Trump’s tax records, those would be part of a confidential grand jury investigation and not automatically be made public.