The ruling is regarding a subpoena that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance issued to Trump’s accountants Mazars USA asking it to turn over documents stretching back to 2011.
The US Supreme Court on Monday allowed the release of former US President Donald Trump’s tax returns and other financial records to criminal prosecutors in New York as a part of a criminal investigation, blowing Trump’s attempts to keep his finances concealed. Trump has been waging a long legal battle to prevent his tax records from being allowed to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance investigating hush payments to women and possible fraud.
The Supreme Court without any comment rejected the request filled by Trump’s lawyers and paved the path for the financial records to be handed over to Vance. The ruling is regarding a subpoena that Vance issued in August 2019, to Trump’s accountants Mazars USA asking it to turn over documents stretching back to 2011.
After the ruling, in a three-word issued statement, Vance said: “The work continues.”
Initially, Vance’s probe was on payments carried out before the 2016 presidential election to two women who state they had affairs with Trump including adult-film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. However, in recent court filings, Vance indicated that the probe is now bigger and is looking at possible allegations of tax evasion, and insurance and bank fraud.
Previously, Vance’s investigators have interviewed Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen who admitted making hush payments to the two women. Cohen was sentenced to a three-year prison term. He also told Congress that Trump and his company to receive bank loans and tax reductions artificially inflated and devalued the worth of their assets.
Trump did not immediately respond to the ruling but in the past has called the probe “a continuation of the greatest political witch hunt in the history of our country.”
US presidents don’t need to release their personal financial information but after Richard Nixon, every president has done it. Trump broke the tradition.
State crimes are not subject to presidential pardons unlike federal offenses, which means if Trump gets convicted he could possibly face a jail term.
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