Supreme Court Denies Last-Ditch Trump Effort To Withhold Financial Records From Manhattan D.A.

On Monday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that former President Donald Trump is legally obligated to hand over his tax and financial records to Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance. Trump had been resisting Vance and the D.A.’s office’s subpoenas for several months, but this most recent ruling will not allow Trump to appeal the court’s decision. Vance’s office is investigating Trump in connection to potential tax crimes and insurance fraud.

Vance’s office formally subpoenaed Trump’s accountant firm Mazars USA for financial records dating back to 2011. Trump’s first challenge of the subpoena was in July 2020 while he was still president. Trump and his lawyers initially argued that state prosecutors cannot investigate a sitting president, but the Supreme Court disagreed.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in July’s majority decision that “no citizen, not even the president, is categorically above the common duty to produce evidence when called upon in a criminal proceeding.” All nine judges agreed with the decision. Trump, however, was given the right to appeal the court’s decision, which he and his lawyers quickly did. Trump’s appeal was subsequently denied by a Manhattan trial judge and a panel of three more judges in federal appeals court.

Trump’s lawyers then filed an “emergency application” in October to the Supreme Court which demanded they waive the decision from the Manhattan trial judge. Vance’s office then directly responded to Trump’s lawyers referencing several of Trump’s tax documents which had been leaked. “With the details of his tax returns now public, applicant’s asserted confidentiality interests have become highly attenuated if they survive at all,” Vance wrote. “And even assuming any remain, they cannot justify extraordinary relief from this court that would deprive the grand jury alone of facts available to anyone who reads the press.”

On Monday morning after the Supreme Court denied Trump’s “emergency application,” Vance released a statement simply saying “the work continues.”