While Donald Trump still refuses to make his tax situation public, the Supreme Court of the United States inflicted on him, Thursday, July 9, a major setback. The court held that a New York prosecutor was entitled to claim the President’s accounting records, including his tax returns, but has blocked their transfer to Congress for the time being.
These two decisions, taken each time by a majority of seven judges out of nine, should not allow American citizens to know more about the finances of the republican billionaire before the presidential election of November 3, in which he is standing.
The Supreme Court first reaffirmed that the President did not enjoy "Of absolute immunity" and that a New York prosecutor could ask him for evidence, in this case a whole series of financial documents relating to his affairs between 2010 and 2018, held by his former accounting firm Mazars.
"The president does not enjoy absolute immunity"
"No citizen, not even the president, can avoid having to produce documents in the event of a criminal investigation. (…) The president does not enjoy absolute immunity from the orders of state justice prosecutors ”, said the highest court in the country. But the investigation is overseen by a grand jury – a group of citizens drawn by lot who operate in the utmost secrecy – and, in theory, nothing should be made public.
In a second judgment, however, the Court immediately blocked the transmission of comparable documents requested by Congress. She referred this request to the courts, asking the judges to take into account a whole series of criteria when assessing whether parliamentary orders were justified.
The former real estate tycoon, who has made his fortune a campaign argument, is the first American president since Richard Nixon to refuse to disclose his tax situation.
In April 2019, Manhattan Attorney Cyrus Vance requested eight years (2011 to 2018) of Mr. Trump's tax returns from his former accounting firm, Mazars. He made the request as part of an investigation into a payment to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels to buy his silence on an alleged affair with the billionaire. This payment, made during the 2016 campaign, may have violated election campaign finance laws.
In parallel, committees of the House of Representatives – where the Democrats have been the majority since January – have asked for a whole series of financial documents covering the same period in injunctions addressed to the Mazars cabinet, but also to the banks Deutsche Bank and Capital One.
The president objected to these claims in court, but the federal courts found him wrong at first instance and on appeal. He then turned to the Supreme Court, which has undergone major changes since his election.
Reacting on Twitter as usual, Trump said he was a victim of "Political prosecution". “The Supreme Court refers the file to a lower court, the proceedings continue. These are just political pursuits ”, did he write. "I have to keep fighting in a politically corrupt New York city", he added, referring to the New York prosecutor who requested the financial documents. “Unfair for this presidency and this government! "
