Trump Ordered to Turn Over 8 Years of Tax Returns to the Manhattan D.A.

[Zorro]

Source: New York Times

A federal judge on Monday rejected a bold argument from President Trump that sitting presidents are immune from criminal investigations, allowing the Manhattan district attorney’s office to subpoena eight years of the president’s personal and corporate tax returns.

Lawyers for Mr. Trump were expected to appeal the ruling from Judge Victor Marrero of Manhattan federal court.

The judge’s decision came a little more than a month after the Manhattan district attorney subpoenaed Mr. Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA, for his personal and corporate returns dating to 2011. The demand touched off a legal showdown that raised new constitutional questions and drew in the Justice Department, which supported the president’s request to delay enforcement of the subpoena.

The Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., has been investigating whether any New York State laws were broken when Mr. Trump and his company reimbursed the president’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, for payments he made in the run-up to the 2016 election to the pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels, who had said she had an affair with Mr. Trump.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/07/nyregion/trump-taxes-lawsuit-vance.html

[BumRushDaShow]

1. Beat me by a second!

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

2. Slide whistle sound going down...

His new theme music.

[smb]

26. Or The "Dragnet" Theme nt

[lagomorph777]

3. Maybe "sitting presidents are immune from criminal investigations" was an overreach.

Just a liddl' bit.

[TexasProgresive]

15. I see what you did there! liddle'

[beachbumbob]

4. NO SUCH LAW OR RULE ANYWHERE that gives a sitting president a free pass on STATE level

investigations and charges.

Remember trump's sister spilled the beans on trumps tax fraud over YEARS, that would include STATE tax fraud, outside the jurisdiction of Bill Barr;s corrupt reach of influence

[brooklynite]

5. Just to be clear; we probably won't see them...

...unless evidence of a crime is found and they're used in a criminal proceeding.

[beachbumbob]

6. sometimes "leaks" happen

we can only hope

[calimary]

9. Yep.

[beachbumbob]

11. I am hoping for patriotic americans to take action and get all the dirty crap

that trump criminal family, inc has got away with for decades. Trump has bought off so many DA's, AGs and state/local politicians in his lifetime that we need patriots to step up

[Scarsdale]

13. Well, there are certainly no

"patriots" in the gop. They are all in lockstep with their orange ass leader. Is tRump admitting that he is a crook, by declaring that presidents are immune from criminal investigations? People with nothing to hide, hide nothing. For him to fight this hard, there must be lots of damaging evidence in these tax returns.

[calimary]

25. He has a lot of them frightened.

Another reason why he HAS TO be stopped. With actual and meaningful consequences attached.

[Cha]

40. And, they seem to a whole Lot with

this misadministration.

[Cryptoad]

10. u really think he will follow any court order,,?

[Fiendish Thingy]

17. The order is not for Trump, but for his accountants nt

[Lock him up.]

35. His henchmen and enablers will all follow Michael Cohen's example?

And end up in jail because they adore him like nazis adored Hitler and will take the fall in jail to save his ass and rotten family.

[KPN]

31. Whatever happened to "preponderance of" and "circumstantial" evidence. This is all

just too horribly frustrating ... but I believe you are right. All we can do is do our part to elect Dem Senate and President. Until then, unless impeachment scares the crap out of enough GOP Senators, we are hamstrung.

[2naSalit]

7. Finally!

[Mike 03]

8. OK, great. But how many more appeals?

Is this an infinite recursive loop or is there some endpoint? Supreme Court?

[Thomas Hurt]

12. It will be appealed, and it will be rehashed.

[safeinOhio]

23. Can't be held up for the whole year

we have before the election.

My guess is that he will keep going in the same direction he has been headed and he'll be toast on things he will do in the next few months.

[FakeNoose]

14. This is what we've been waiting for

Ding ding ding!

[Fiendish Thingy]

16. November court decision will be the big bombshell

That's when an appeals court is scheduled to rule and order Duetches bank and Mazars to turn over all records pertaining to Trump to the intelligence committee (they have said they will comply with any court order). Even if this is appealed to SCOTUS, it's unlikely they will rule against the right of the intelligence committee to determine if Trump has been compromised by a foreign power.

[Gothmog]

18. This looks like a great opinion

Link to tweet

[pangaia]

19. "A federal judge on Monday rejected a bold argument from President Trump..."

BOLD !!!!

It's COWARDLY!!

Come on NYT, get your honesty act together, what there is left of it...

[smb]

27. There's A More Accurate Word For It Beginning With "B" nt

[PoliticAverse]

20. This was always just a delaying tactic. I'm sure there will be more attempts to delay. n/t

[OnlinePoker]

21. I wonder if they've finished being audited yet? n/t

[Jarqui]

22. Looks like he got a stay from the 2nd Circuit ...

Link to tweet

[ffr]

28. In non-legal jargon, what does this mean?

[Jarqui]

29. They get another kick at the can in the higher court

to stop the release of his tax returns

[ancianita]

33. The SCOTUS Justice for the 2nd District Appeals Court is Ruth Bader Ginsberg. 13 judges sit on

the appeals court, with Katzenburg as their chief.

I don't know what this means, in terms of releasing taxes by 4 pm, but I'd bet that this case doesn't get to SCOTUS.

[Polybius]

36. Are those 13 mostly Democrats or Republicans?

I wonder...

[ancianita]

37. Eight are Democratic appointees like Ginsburg. 3 Trump, 2 Bush appointees are the minority.

[SunSeeker]

24. OFFS, NYT, there is nothing "bold" about Trump's argument that he's immune from prosecution!

It is the argument of a corrupt, guilty cowardly autocrat. Any of those adjectives would have been much more appropriate. Bold is arguing for an assault weapons ban when one of your key donors is the NRA. Trump will never demonstrate boldness or selfless courage. He is not bold. He is a shameless con man. I believe the "b" adjective you're looking for, NYT, is BRAZEN.

I fucking hate the normalization of Trump outrages!

[packman]

30. Now, I ask you

What could POSSIBLY be in those tax returns compared to the egregious, treasonable, sexist, racist , outrageous things this orange butt-hole has done over the past few years. Even if they show he got his money from China or Russia - so what in comparison to the other crap he's pulled.

Yes, I would love to see what he is so anxious to keep from the public eye - but, really it would seem so anti-climactic at this point.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

32. Here's the order denying Trump's "extraordinary claim"

RickPerryMadeHatDoIt Retweeted

Here's the order denying Trump's "extraordinary claim" seeking to halt an investigation into his taxes, which the court says is "repugnant to the nation's governmental structure and constitutional values": https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.523086/gov.uscourts.nysd.523086.35.0.pdf ….

Link to tweet

[a kennedy]

34. Not gonna happen today......

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Monday granted President Donald Trump a last-minute reprieve in his effort to prevent New York prosecutors from obtaining his tax records.

The stay was issued not long after a federal judge rejected Trump’s claim that he was immune from criminal investigations in a bid to block a subpoena from the Manhattan district attorney seeking eight years of personal and business tax returns.

As a result of the stay, Mazars USA, the president's tax preparer, doesn't have to hand over the documents by 1 p.m. Monday, as was required. A panel of appellate judges will hear the case on an expedited basis and then issue a ruling.

Earlier Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero tossed the lawsuit Trump's legal team had brought against District Attorney Cyrus Vance arguing Vance should not receive Trump's tax returns because "'[v]irtually all legal commenters agree' that a sitting President of the United States is not 'subject to the criminal process' while he is in office.”

In a 75-page order, Marrero called the presidential immunity Trump invoked in the lawsuit to stop the production of tax documents "unqualified and boundless."


https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-loses-new-york-court-fight-keep-tax-returns-hidden-n106318

[duforsure]

38. He'll still refuse

And will exploit some loophole, and ignore judges orders. He has no respect for them, the rule of law, or the truth. He knows if they come out it'll show he's corrupt , and a fraud, and will go to prison. If he turns over anything it'll either be incomplete, or doctored yo. I'd bet they doctor them up.

[Kablooie]

39. Immediately after Trump ordered NOT to turn over tax returns. (of course)