A federal appeals court ruled on Monday, Nov. 4, that presidential immunity was not enough to overturn the Manhattan prosecutor's request.
Donald Trump will have to reveal his tax returns claimed for months by the prosecutor of Manhattan. A Federal Court of Appeal confirmed Monday, November 4, that the presidential immunity was not enough to reject this injunction.
In a decision rendered Monday, a panel of judges has indeed estimated that the accounting firm Mazars, in charge of tax affairs of the President of the United States, had no reason not to postpone the eight years (from 2011 to 2018) of Donald Trump's tax returns that the Manhattan state attorney was asking him for.
Attorney Cyrus Vance – a Democrat Elected – asked for these documents as part of an investigation into a payment made to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels to buy his silence on an alleged affair with the US President.
The investigation, which examines how Mr. Trump and his company paid off the $ 130,000 payment made during the 2016 presidential campaign by a lawyer for the Republican candidate, has not resulted in any charges at this stage.
But the president's lawyers fiercely fight this injunction, arguing that Mr. Trump enjoys, all the time he is in the White House, immunity from any investigation and criminal prosecution.
Donald Trump targeted by other actions
At a hearing on the case on October 23, one of the president's lawyers had even said before the judges that Donald Trump would enjoy immunity if he decided to shoot someone in the street. A statement immediately challenged by jurists, and mocked by Democrats.
The appeal judges, however, emphasized in their ruling on Monday that they did not have to decide whether the incumbent president could be prosecuted, charged or compelled to provide documents in an investigation. But they only had to decide if "A third party" – here the cabinet Mazars – could be obliged to produce financial documents of a president in exercise, as part of an investigation.
The president's lawyers, however, should continue to resist this injunction, which could lead the case to the Supreme Court, according to several observers. The New York billionaire is the first American president since Richard Nixon refused to disclose his tax situation.
In addition to the action of prosecutor Cyrus Vance, he is confronted with other actions by Democratic parliamentarians, both in Washington and New York, to compel him to file his statements.
