Trump loses again – SCOTUS allows his tax returns to be made available to NY Grand Jury
Supreme Court rejects Trump’s effort to shield tax records from New York prosecutor. On Monday, the US Supreme Court denied former president Donald Trump’s bid to block Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance from enforcing a subpoena for his tax returns. Trump had previously attempted to shield a grand jury from reviewing his tax records. “The Supreme Court never should have let this ‘fishing expedition’ happen, but they did,” Trump said in a statement.
Trump issued a statement describing Vance’s investigation as part of “the greatest political witch hunt in the history of our country,” accusing New York Democrats of expending their energy on taking down a political opponent instead of tackling violent crimes.
“That’s fascism, not justice – and that is exactly what they are trying to do with respect to me, except that the people of our Country won’t stand for it,” Trump added.
The Supreme Court’s action does not require Trump to do anything. The records involved in the dispute were requested from a third-party, Mazars, not Trump himself. Vance previously told Trump’s lawyers his office would be free to immediately enforce the subpoena if the justices rejected Trump’s request.
A Mazars spokesman said the company “remains committed to fulfilling all of our professional and legal obligations.”
The Supreme Court paved the way for a New York City prosecutor to obtain Donald Trump’s tax returns and other financial records as part of a criminal investigation, a blow to his quest to conceal details of his finances https://t.co/H0pZO80udC
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 22, 2021
The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for a New York grand jury to obtain former President Donald Trump’s financial records. Over four months after Trump asked them to intervene, the justices turned down a request by the former president to stay a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit that permits Cyrus Vance, the district attorney for Manhattan, to enforce a subpoena to Mazars USA, the president’s longtime accountant. Monday’s order means that Vance and the grand jury likely will finally acquire eight years of Trump’s tax returns and other related records, although grand jury secrecy laws may preclude them from becoming public.
The court’s order came in a dispute that began in 2019, when Vance issued a subpoena to Mazars as part of a state grand jury’s investigation into criminal violations of New York law. The investigation includes a probe into hush-money payments that were made to two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump. A federal district court in New York and the 2nd Circuit rebuffed the president’s request to quash that subpoena, prompting Trump to appeal to the Supreme Court. The justices ruled in July that the president is not categorically immune from state criminal subpoenas, but they sent the case back to the lower courts to allow the president to challenge the subpoena on other grounds.
Here's the story from @AHoweBlogger on today's long-awaited order in the Trump v. Vance case involving the Manhattan DA's investigation into Trump's financial records. https://t.co/jlclpxafPd
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) February 22, 2021
The @ManhattanDA has hired a top prosecutor with deep expertise in investigating organized crime & racketeering to “follow the money” at @Trump: https://t.co/W4txe2ztP3
Tax fraud is likely to be the tip of the iceberg. pic.twitter.com/dsKK6fagwg— Alex Howard (@digiphile) February 19, 2021
The thing is, it's a "witch hunt" that has already revealed a trail of frogs & newt eyes leading right to a bubbling cauldron, with a hat & broomstick nearby hanging on a tree. Them's the facts, so it's only logical they look for the witch. pic.twitter.com/tdqvszEEE4
— Melissa BOO! 👻Peltier (@MelissaJPeltier) February 22, 2021
