Manhattan prosecutor rejects Trump’s ‘recycled’ arguments over tax returns
September 21, 2020
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Manhattan’s district attorney on Monday urged a federal appeals court to reject President Donald Trump’s “recycled” arguments to block the release of his subpoenaed tax returns and other records.
In a court filing, lawyers for District Attorney Cyrus Vance said the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan should uphold the dismissal of Trump’s lawsuit by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero, saying he conducted a “meticulous” analysis of the president’s claims.
The dispute concerns whether Vance can enforce his August 2019 grand jury subpoena to Trump’s accounting firm Mazars USA for eight years of the president’s personal and corporate tax returns in connection with a criminal probe into his businesses.
Trump, a Republican, has argued that the subpoena from Vance, a Democrat, was “wildly overbroad” and issued in bad faith to harass him.
He made that argument after the U.S. Supreme Court in July rejected the president’s earlier claim he was immune from criminal investigations while in the White House.
Oral arguments are set for Sept. 25 before a panel of three judges, all appointed by Democratic presidents. Though the appeal has been fast-tracked, it is unlikely the public will know what’s in Trump’s tax returns before the Nov. 3 election.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Tom Brown)