A federal appeals court set a hearing for Sept. 1 to consider President Donald Trump’s emergency request to put on hold a judge’s ruling that cleared the way for the Manhattan District Attorney to enforce a subpoena for his tax returns and other financial records.
The New York appellate court announced the hearing date Friday while also denying Trump’s request to stay the lower court decision immediately while he appeals to block the release of records from his accounting firm, Mazars USA.
District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. had previously agreed to delay enforcement of the subpoena for seven days after the judge’s ruling. That deadline would expire Aug. 28. It’s unclear what, if anything, will happen to the subpoena in the days between that deadline and the scheduled hearing. Trump could also ask the Supreme Court to place an immediate hold on the subpoena.
The appeal was filed after U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero on Thursday rejected Trump’s claims that the subpoena to Mazars was issued in bad faith and is overbroad. Vance is seeking eight years of the president’s taxes and other records as part of a grand jury investigation into payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
The case was back before Marrero after the U.S. Supreme Court last month rejected Trump’s argument that he’s immune from state criminal investigations.
In his decision, Marrero cited the argument by Trump’s lawyers earlier in the case that “nothing could be done” by prosecutors if the president were to shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue, at least until he left office. The idea that the president has absolute immunity endangers the rule of law, the judge said.
The case is Trump v. Vance, 19-cv-08694, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
