Donald Trump lashes out after judge clears way for controversial tax returns to be released

Kit Heren20 August 2020

Donald Trump has hit out at investigators conducting "the greatest witch hunt in history" after a US judge lifted the final obstacle for New York prosecutors to release his tax returns.

District Judge Victor Marrero's on Thursday turned down a last-ditch legal challenge by the president's lawyers.

His ruling came after the Supreme Court ruled in July that Mr Trump was not exempt from being ordered to release his tax records through a subpoena.

Mr Trump has argued through his legal team that the subpoena by Manhattan district attorney for his tax records was made in bad faith, could have been politically motivated and amounted to harassment.

Lawyers for district attorney Cyrus Vance lawyers said they were entitled to the tax returns as part of a “complex financial investigation” - citing public reports of “extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organisation”.

AFP via Getty Images

Mr Trump’s lawyers said that the request for tax records dating back to 2011 was done as retaliation after the Trump Organisation disputed the scope of a subpoena seeking records from June 1, 2015 until September 20, 2018.

Those dates relate to investigation into alleged payoffs to two women, including porn star Stormy Daniels, to keep them quiet about alleged extramarital affairs with Mr Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Mr Trump has denied the affairs and said that he should be immune from this kind of investigation as president.

He said on Thursday: "The Supreme Court said it’s a fishing expedition. You don’t have to do it.

“And this is a fishing expedition, but more importantly, this is a continuation of the witch hunt – the greatest witch hunt in history. There’s never been anything like it, where people want to examine everything you’ve ever done to see if they can find that there’s a comma out of place.”

But Justice Marrero warned that Mr Trump's argument was "unprecedented and far-reaching as it is perilous to the rule of law and other bedrock constitutional principles on which this country was founded and by which it continues to be governed."

Stormy Daniels, to whom the investigation into Mr Trump is related 
Getty Images

Mr Vance has been trying to get hold Mr Trump’s tax returns from the president’s longtime accounting firm, Mazars USA, for more than a year, since Mr Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen told Congress that the president had misled tax officials, insurers and business associates about the value of his assets.

Mr Trump's lawyers immediately appealed Thursday's ruling to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which makes it unlikely investigators will get their hands on Mr Trump’s financial records before November’s presidential election.

Mr Trump is the only president in modern times who has refused to make his tax returns public. Before he was elected he promised to release them.

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