Donald Trump says he would be 'irreparably harmed' if Manhattan prosecutors gets his tax returns in bid to get subpoena for them stopped
President Donald Trump on Monday urged a federal appeals court not to let Manhattan's top prosecutor have his tax returns, saying 'the deck was clearly stacked against' him, and said he would ask the Supreme Court to intervene if necessary.
The argument was made in a filing with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, which on Tuesday will hear arguments on Trump's bid to delay Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance's subpoena for the tax returns during Trump's appeal.
Absent a delay, Trump requested a stay to give the Supreme Court time to consider his request.
A spokesman for Vance declined to comment.
New round in taxes battle: Donald Trump's lawyers filed their case with federal appeals court judges in a bid to stop Cy Vyance Jr., the Manhattan D.A., getting access to his taxes
The district attorney is seeking eight years of tax returns from Trump's longtime accounting firm Mazars USA in connection with a criminal probe of the president's business practices.
Trump has fought the subpoena for a year. He suffered a defeat in July when the Supreme Court rejected his claim of immunity from criminal probes while in the White House.
The tax returns are unlikely to become public before the Nov. 3 presidential election. Vance has said the continued litigation has effectively given Trump the 'temporary absolute immunity' that courts have rejected.
On Aug. 20, U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero refused for a second time to block the subpoena, saying 'justice requires an end to this controversy.'
But Monday's filing said Trump was not resurrecting his broad immunity claim, arguing instead that the subpoena was overbroad and issued in bad faith, and that Vance should have to show why its contents were relevant to his probe.
'The District Attorney should not have been allowed to 'run roughshod' over the President in his pursuit of claims that the Supreme Court held he could raise,' the filing said.
The filing said enforcing the subpoena would cause Trump irreparable harm.
'It is disclosure of these records to the government--not just to the public--that causes injury,' it said.
A page from Trump's 1995 tax records
Marrero has refused multiple times to block the subpoena. The U.S. Supreme Court last month upheld one of his rulings, finding that the presidency in itself doesn't shield Trump from Vance's investigation.
But the high court returned the case to Marrero's courtroom to allow Trump´s lawyers to raise other concerns about the subpoena. They did, arguing that it was issued in bad faith, might have been politically motivated and amounted to harassment.
Vance's attorneys countered that they were entitled to extensive records to aid a 'complex financial investigation,' citing public reports of 'extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization.'
Those arguments led to this week's flurry of rulings and appeals.
Trump blasted the long-running quest for his financial records Thursday as a 'continuation of the most disgusting witch hunt in the history of our country.'
Vance, a Democrat, began seeking the Republican president's tax returns from his longtime accounting firm over a year ago, after Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen told Congress that the president had misled tax officials, insurers and business associates about the value of his assets.
The president has said he expects the case to end up back before the Supreme Court.
Even if the tax records ultimately are subpoenaed, they would not automatically be made public, as they are being sought as part of a confidential grand jury investigation.
Congress is also pursuing Trump´s financial records, though the Supreme Court last month kept a hold on the banking and other documents that Congress has been seeking and returned the case to a lower court.
Trump is the only modern president who has refused to release his tax returns. Before he was elected, he had promised to do so.
The DA's investigation covers records in the time frame a hush money payoff was given to porn star Stormy Daniels, who said she had an affair with Trump; the president has denied the allegation
Trump had called the case a 'witch hunt' when he spoke to reporters last Thursday in the Oval Office at the White House.
'Well, the Supreme Court said if it's a fishing expedition, you don't have to do it, and this is a fishing expedition. But more importantly, this is a continuation of the witch hunt, the greatest witch hunt in history,' he said.
'There's never been anything like it, where people want to examine everything you've ever done to see if they can find that there's a comma out of place. No president has ever had to go through this,' he added.
The president predicted the case would end up back in the hands of the Supreme Court, which last month ruled the president could not claim immunity in the case and sent it back to the lower court.
'We'll probably end up back in the Supreme Court. But this is just a continuation of the most hideous witch hunt in the history of our country,' he added.
Trump complained prosecutor want to 'inspect every deal he's ever done.'
'This is the ultimate fishing expedition. Nobody has anything. We don't do things wrong.
'But they'll say let's go in and inspect every deal he's ever done. Let's get papers from 10 years - every paper, every deal he's ever signed, maybe we can find with some lawyer made a mistake, where they didn't dot an 'i' where didn't put a comma down someplace, and then we can do something. This is a disgrace. This should never ever be allowed to happen again,' he said.
Donald Trump says he would be 'irreparably harmed' if Manhattan prosecutors gets his tax returns in bid to get subpoena for them stopped
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September 01, 2020
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