NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge Monday emphatically rejected President Donald Trump’s challenge to the release of his tax returns to New York prosecutors, saying the president’s broad claim of immunity from all criminal investigations is at odds with the Constitution. But an appeals court blocked the handover of the documents for now.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
At issue is a request from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. that Trump’s accounting firm turn over eight years’ worth of his business and personal tax returns for an investigation into the payment of hush money to two women who claimed to have had affairs with the president.
U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero turned down Trump’s challenge, saying he could not grant the president a “categorical and limitless assertion of presidential immunity.”
Trump’s lawyers immediately appealed to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and it granted a temporary stay of the judge’s ruling “pending expedited review” by the court.
“The Radical Left Democrats have failed on all fronts,” Trump fumed on Twitter, “so now they are pushing local New York City and State Democrat prosecutors to go get President Trump. A thing like this has never happened to any President before. Not even close!”
Trump’s lawyers have said that the investigation led by Vance, a Democrat, is politically motivated and that the request for his tax records should be stopped because he is immune from any criminal probe as long as he is president.
Marrero called Trump’s claim of a broad immunity “extraordinary” and “an overreach of executive power.”
“As the court reads it, presidential immunity would stretch to cover every phase of criminal proceedings, including investigations, grand jury proceedings and subpoenas, indictment, prosecution, arrest, trial, conviction, and incarceration,” the judge wrote. “That constitutional protection presumably would encompass any conduct, at any time, in any forum, whether federal or state, and whether the President acted alone or in concert with other individuals.”
The judge said couldn’t accept that legal view, “especially in the light of the fundamental concerns over excessive arrogation of power” that led the founding fathers to create a balance of power among the three branches of government.
Trump’s lawyers and the district attorney’s office did not immediately comment in response to the ruling. Justice Department attorneys in Washington, who had urged Marrero to delay deciding the issue, declined to comment.
Vance began his probe after federal prosecutors in New York completed their investigation into payments that Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, arranged to be paid to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal to keep them silent during the presidential race. The Trump Organization later reimbursed Cohen.
Cohen is serving a three-year prison sentence for crimes that included campaign finance violations in connection with the hush money.
Trump was never charged, though prosecutors said publicly that he was aware of and directed the illegal payments. Justice Department policy has long been that sitting presidents cannot be charged criminally.
Trump has steadfastly refused to make his tax returns public, breaking from a tradition set by presidents and presidential candidates decades ago.
Grand jury proceedings and records in New York are secret. If Vance gains access to Trump’s returns through a grand jury investigation, that doesn’t mean that their contents will be disclosed publicly.
It is unclear what Trump’s returns might have to do with the criminal investigation.
Why is Trump so insistent on hiding his tax returns? During his campaign he promised to release them after the election. What is he hiding? There must be something in them which is at odds with his claims of no business with Russia.
If Cy Vance wants my tax returns he just has to call the executor of my estate.
Did Giuliani create this defense?
Since the President has nothing to hide there is no reason to hide these documents.
The Democrats have concluded that Trump is a criminal, despite zero evidence to that effect. They have violated the trust of all Americans by stating that openly, capturing the media to convince the public of this, and launching endless investigations to find something – anything that would support their foregone conclusion. Normal jurisprudence is that one encounters a crime, then searches to find the perpetrator. Not here. I have yet to meet a single Democrat that is willing to follow normal thinking on this, which is why I have devoted a bit of my tefilos to the downfall of this evil cult.
Dead-end Donald will be crushed in the end, just like all the boot lickers he’s surrounded himself with. Flynn, Manafart, Mikey Cohen, Barr, Crazy Unk Rudy, etc. Hiding his tax returns because he knows what’s in them. They’ll be leaked soon. And the Yutz just threw Rick Perry under the Egged Bus over Ukraine!
Mr honest aka yoni I have spoken to accountants and they admit what I am saying . All you need is an overzealous prosecutor and 12 dumb jurors . Listen I agree if you are just a salaried employee who earns 100k a year and gets a clean w2 there ain’t much for the govt to nail you in . But anyone in a complex business you bet the govt can nail you . Yoni you say stuff with conviction as if you know . But you are full of it . If they want they will get any semi complex business man and the jurors are a bunch of 12 jurors to dumb to get out of jury duty . Yes they are vicious people . Get that thru your thick head and stop lying thru your teeth .
Rubashkin by the way did a very small misdemeanor . No only you and your twisted liberal garbage nonsense beliefs thinks he should have gone to jail . The banks wanted to make those loans and so yes they inflated numbers just like they do with every minority poor guy with bad credit pre 2007 . No big crimes .
Don’t waste your breath with your silly facts yoni . I don’t like facts I like stores and big pictures . Facts can be twisted . Save your breath mr dishonest yoni . ( honesty would strat by not spamming under ten screen names you fool mr old Yeller)
Let me repeat rubashkin is innocent and prosecutors can get any businessman on any thing without intent