Supreme Court won’t block release of Trump’s financial records.
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court refused to intercede Monday in a longrunning legal fight between former President Donald Trump and the Manhattan district attorney, clearing the way for New York City prosecutors who are investigating Trump and his company to enforce a grand jury subpoena for his tax records.
Trump has dismissed the Manhattan prosecutors’ investigation as a political “witch hunt” and has fought bitter legal battles for years to keep his tax returns under wraps.
Because of the secrecy of grand jury proceedings, the development does not mean Trump’s financial records will become public.
This is the second time Trump asked the Supreme Court to protect his financial documents from disclosure to prosecutors. Last summer, the high court rejected Trump’s claims that he was immune from criminal investigations while in office, but it sent the case back to lower courts to resolve other legal issues.
In a lengthy statement after the Supreme Court’s decision Monday, Trump described the investigation as “fascism.” He criticized the Supreme Court, to which he appointed three justices during his four years in office.
“The Supreme Court never should have let this ‘fishing expedition’ happen, but they did,” Trump said. “This is something which has never happened to a president before, it is all Democrat-inspired in a totally Democrat location, New York City and State.”
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s office subpoenaed several years of Trump’s tax returns and financial documents as part of an investigation into alleged hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential race. Vance’s office indicated that prosecutors are looking more broadly at possible criminal activity at the Trump Organization.
Trump’s attorneys asked the high court to intervene in the case after losing the legal battles in lower courts. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled in early October that Trump’s accountant, Mazars USA, must comply with the subpoena, rejecting Trump’s
claims that it was too broad and was issued in bad faith to harass him.
Trump’s attorneys cited concerns that the subpoena, which makes “sweeping demands” and is identical to one issued by Congress, “crosses the line – even were it aimed at some other citizen instead of the President.”
Trump’s attorney William Consovoy dismissed the subpoena as politically motivated, repeatedly calling out Vance for issuing a word-for-word copy of a subpoena issued by House Democrats.
Vance’s lawyer, Carey Dunne, told the court that Consovoy misread the scope of the investigation and failed to show that prosecutors are playing politics.
Trump’s attorneys frame the investigation as stemming from allegations of hush money payments made by Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, to cover up alleged affairs. They argued that the subpoenas for Trump’s tax records are overbroad.
Dunne said the investigation extended far beyond the payments. Trump has denied the affairs.
The subpoena seeks tax returns, financial statements, engagement letters, underlying support for financial statements and working papers from various entities Trump owned beginning in 2011.
Dunne rejected claims that the subpoena was politically motivated, arguing that grand jury secrecy laws would prevent any politicians from viewing the subpoenaed documents.