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Trump taxes: judge orders eight years of returns from president Judge rejects Trump's 'repugnant' immunity claim in tax return ruling
(about 3 hours later)
After a federal judge in New York rejected Donald Trump’s claim to be immune from all criminal investigations and dismissed his challenge to a subpoena for eight years of his tax returns, the president’s lawyers immediately appealed. Donald Trump suffered a major setback in the long struggle to conceal his tax returns on Monday, when he lost a federal court ruling in New York.
The second US circuit court of appeals duly awarded a temporary stay, meaning the returns will not be turned over immediately. Jeff Daniels to play Comey on TV – and Brendan Gleeson to play Trump
Will swing voters who went from Obama to Trump stay loyal in 2020? A judge ruled that the president’s claim to immunity while in office was “repugnant” and said Manhattan’s district attorney could subpoena eight years of Trump’s personal and corporate tax returns from his accounting firm, Mazars USA.
Nonetheless, the president lashed out on Twitter, apparently linking the case to the impeachment inquiry under way in the House of Representatives and other political woes. An appeals court blocked any immediate handover of the records but the escalating court battle leaves Trump with less room for manoeuvre and adds to woes that include a fast-moving impeachment inquiry, which on Monday saw House Democrats issue subpoenas for documents from the Pentagon and the White House budget office.
Trump is first US president in nearly 40 years not to release his tax information, despite having promised to do so during the 2016 campaign.
Last month the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance, investigating hush money payments to women including the pornographic actor Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election, subpoenaed eight years of Trump’s tax returns.
A federal investigation into the hush money led to Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen pleading guilty to campaign finance violations. Trump, who denies Daniels’ claim of a sexual relationship, has claimed any payments were a personal matter, not a campaign expense.
The court cannot square a vision of presidential immunity that would place the president above the law
The federal investigation wound up in July. Vance, a Democrat, launched a fresh investigation into whether the Trump Organization falsely listed its reimbursement of Cohen for the $130,000 payment to Daniels as a legal expense. That would be illegal in New York.
Trump’s lawyers argue the president is immune from such an investigation while in office and the US constitution requires Vance to wait until after Trump has left the White House.
On Monday, US district Judge Victor Marrero in Manhattan described the immunity argument as “extraordinary” … an overreach of executive power” and “repugnant to the nation’s governmental structure and constitutional values”.
In a 75-page decision, the judge added: “The court cannot square a vision of presidential immunity that would place the president above the law.”
Despite the impeachment inquiry and a fresh political crisis over Syria, Trump still found time to address the decision on Twitter.
“The Radical Left Democrats have failed on all fronts, so now they are pushing local New York City and State Democrat prosecutors to go get President Trump,” he wrote. “A thing like this has never happened to any President before. Not even close!”“The Radical Left Democrats have failed on all fronts, so now they are pushing local New York City and State Democrat prosecutors to go get President Trump,” he wrote. “A thing like this has never happened to any President before. Not even close!”
Against convention, Trump has not released his tax returns since declaring a run for the White House in mid-2015. The president’s lawyers immediately appealed to the second US circuit court of appeals, which granted a temporary stay of the ruling “pending expedited review”.
Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr, a Democrat, asked Trump’s accounting firm to turn over his business and personal returns as part of an investigation of the Trump Organization’s involvement in buying the silence of two women who claimed to have had affairs with the president. Separately, Trump is trying to block Deutsche Bank AG from handing over financial records which the bank has said include tax returns and which are sought by multiple House committees.
Vance began his investigation after federal prosecutors in Manhattan completed their investigation into payments that Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, arranged to be paid to the adult film actor Stormy Daniels and the Playboy model Karen McDougal to keep them silent during the presidential race. The criminal investigation in New York is unfolding with Trump already under siege from a impeachment inquiry touched off by his efforts to get Ukraine’s leader to investigate the former vice-president Joe Biden, a potential opponent at the polls next year.
Cohen was reimbursed by the Trump Organization. He is serving a three-year prison sentence for crimes that included campaign finance violations. Trump has accused House speaker Nancy Pelosi of handing out subpoenas “like cookies”. There was no let up on Monday as Democrats subpoenaed the heads of the defense department and the Office of Management and Budget for documents related to the Trump administration’s decision to freeze aid to Ukraine.
Trump was never charged, though prosecutors said publicly he was aware of and directed the illegal payments. Democrats said in a statement: “The enclosed subpoena demands documents that are necessary for the committees to examine this sequence of these events and the reasons behind the White House’s decision to withhold critical military assistance to Ukraine that was appropriated by Congress to counter Russian aggression.”
Justice department policy has long been that sitting presidents cannot be charged criminally. Trump’s lawyers have said the investigation is politically motivated and the request for his tax records should be stopped because he is immune. The deadline to comply is 15 October.
Grand jury proceedings and records in New York are secret. If Vance gains access to Trump’s returns through a grand jury investigation, that would not mean their contents would be disclosed publicly. Will swing voters who went from Obama to Trump stay loyal in 2020?
It is unclear what Trump’s returns might have to do with the criminal investigation. Nonetheless, Trump’s tax affairs remain a subject of national controversy and fascination. Trump has continued to unleash a volley of impetuous tweets, suggesting Pelosi could be guilty of treason.
In his Monday ruling striking down Trump’s attempt to block the subpoena, the US district judge Victor Marrero said he could not grant such a “categorical and limitless assertion of presidential immunity”. “Nancy Pelosi knew of all of the many Shifty Adam Schiff lies and massive frauds perpetrated upon Congress and the American people,” Trump wrote on Sunday evening, referring to the chairman of the House intelligence committee whom he has accused of treason.
Trump’s claim was “extraordinary” and “an overreach of executive power”, he wrote. Congress is in recess but the House intelligence, foreign affairs and oversight committees will continue to hear from witnesses this week. Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union, will be deposed on Tuesday. Marie Yovanovitch, former US ambassador to Ukraine who was recalled early, is due to appear on Friday.
“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. A lawyer representing the original intelligence community whistleblower whose complaint launched the impeachment inquiry said on Sunday a second whistleblower has come forward and spoken to the intelligence community’s internal watchdog, further complicating the president’s case.
“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 he couldn’t accept that legal view, “especially in the light of the fundamental concerns over excessive arrogation of power that animated the constitution’s delicate structure and its calibrated balance of authority among the three branches of the national government, as well as between the federal and state authorities”.
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