Donald Trump will get a chance next week to try new arguments against Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s subpoena of his tax returns and other financial records after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the president’s claim of immunity in the matter.
The high court on Thursday said presidents do not have broad protections against state criminal investigations. The case was sent back to U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in Manhattan, who set a July 16 hearing date.
Vance is seeking the records from Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars LLP, as part of a grand jury investigation into hush-money payments made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who says she had a sexual relationship with Trump about a decade before he became president. Trump has denied the affair and called the probe politically motivated harassment.
“No citizen, not even the president, is categorically above the common duty to produce evidence when called upon in a criminal proceeding,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the 7-2 ruling denying the president’s claim of immunity.
Trump downplayed the ruling on Twitter Thursday, saying arguments would continue in the lower court. “Now I have to keep fighting in a politically corrupt New York,” he said. “Not fair to this Presidency or Administration!”
Trump could argue the district attorney’s subpoena is too broad or too burdensome, but several legal experts said such arguments rarely succeed. The fight could keep New York prosecutors from getting the documents before the presidential election though. Even if they get them, the records would still be guarded by grand-jury secrecy laws.
The case is Trump v. Vance, 19-cv-08694, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
