NEW YORK (AP) – A federal judge in New York said Thursday that Donald Trump must deliver eight years of tax returns to Manhattan Attorney Cyrus Vance, a new setback for the US president who tries to keep his earnings secret.
In a 103-page ruling, New York Southern District Judge Victor Marrero found prosecutor Vance’s request justified, a Democrat who complained to Trump’s accounting firm a year ago, Mazars, the president’s taxes from 2011 to 2018.
In July, the United States Supreme Court had already rejected Trump’s request for immunity in a criminal investigation into his tax returns, and ruled that they must be turned over to the prosecutor.
But despite that ruling, Trump took the case back to a New York district court, raising other objections: that Vance’s claim was in “bad faith” and “too broad.”
Judge Marrero’s ruling negative to the president, however, can be appealed by Trump.
“We will probably end up in the Supreme Court again. But this is simply a continuation of the most horrific witch hunt in the history of our country,” Trump said in the Oval Office Thursday, consulted on the matter.
During his election campaign, Trump promised to publish his tax returns, but never did. Is the first president from Richard Nixon who refuses to release his tax returns.
Since Vance’s investigation stems from a decision made by a grand jury whose deliberations are secret, no one knows exactly what the prosecutor is looking for in those tax documents that he requests from the Mazars law firm.
Initially, it was believed that the investigation focused on a payment made to the pornographic actress Stormy Daniels to buy her silence for an alleged relationship with Trump, in violation of the US law on electoral financing.
But the prosecution recently hinted that the investigation could be broader and extend to “possible criminal behavior within the Trump Organization,” the company that regroups the former real estate magnate’s businesses and is not listed on the stock market.
Whatever the outcome of the court battle, no one expects Trump’s tax returns to be released before the November 3 presidential election.
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