https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...6e64ae-0265-11eb-a2db-417cddf4816a_story.html
NEW YORK — A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that Manhattan's district attorney can enforce his subpoena for President Trump's tax returns, rejecting a bid by Trump's lawyers to kill the request and potentially setting up another showdown at the Supreme Court.
Though the district attorney has agreed not to enforce his subpoena immediately while Trump asks the high court to hear his case again, the ruling marks another blow for the president, who has fought for more than a year to shield his financial records from investigators, and follows separate, jarring revelations about the enormity of his debt.
Wednesday's ruling was issued by a panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Read the ruling: Donald J. Trump v. Cyrus R. Vance Jr. and Mazars USA
District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. is seeking eight years of the president’s tax returns and related documents as part of his investigation into alleged hush-money payments made ahead of the 2016 election to two women who said they had affairs with Trump years prior. Trump denies the claims. Investigators want to determine if efforts were made to conceal the payments on tax documents by labeling them legal expenses.
Vance’s office also has indicated that his probe
includes dealings at the Trump Organization, the president’s family business which oversees hundreds of subsidiaries. If the company deceived lenders or insurance companies by manipulating the value of its assets, fraud charges would potentially apply, officials have said.
Judge asks district attorney why he didn’t take Trump’s tax returns weeks ago
The three-judge panel who heard the president's case shot down his claim that the district attorney's investigation is limited only to the alleged payments made by Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal — saying in
their ruling that the "bare assertion … amounts to nothing more than implausible speculation."
"Similarly," the ruling says, "the President's allegations of bad faith fail to raise a plausible inference that the subpoena was issued out of malice or an intent to harass."
Vance’s bid for Trump’s tax records has been stalled since last year, when his issued a subpoena to the president’s accounting firm, Mazars USA. Trump’s lawyers have said the request is overly broad and issued in bad faith, though their initial argument — that as president he is immune from prosecution — was rejected by the Supreme Court in July.
Judge rejects Trump’s latest bid to shield his tax records from Manhattan district attorney
The case arrived at the appeals court after U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero, in August, rejected Trump’s latest argument and wrote in his decision that “justice requires an end to this controversy.”
Trump has long resisted disclosure of his tax records and did not voluntarily release them while campaigning in 2016, as had been customary for presidential candidates. Late last month, the
New York Times published an explosive report on Trump’s tax returns, detailing massive write-offs that enabled him to pay no federal income taxes for many years — and just $750 for two years in a row. It also revealed he has hundreds of millions of dollars in debt with loans coming due soon.
