Prosecutor can obtain Trump's tax returns, court rules

Prosecutor can obtain Trump's tax returns, court rules

[NFA] President Trump's lawyer said Trump will appeal to the Supreme Court after a federal appeals court on Wednesday said Manhattan's district attorney can enforce a subpoena seeking Donald Trump's tax returns and other financial records for a criminal probe into the U.S. president and his businesses.

Colette Luke has more.

President Trump will appeal to the Supreme Court after a federal appeals court on Wednesday said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance can enforce a subpoena seeking Donald Trump's tax returns and other financial records for a criminal probe into the U.S. president and his businesses.

Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow said he’ll be seeking a stay against enforcing the subpoena, with Vance agreeing not to enforce it for 12 days so long as Trump appeals quickly.

In a 3-0 decision, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan rejected Trump's accusations that a subpoena from Vance, a Democrat, was overly broad, or issued in bad faith to harass him.

The decision by the appeals court panel made up of three judges who were all appointed by Democratic presidents comes after a Sept.

28th report in The New York Times that said Trump had paid $750 dollars in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017, and no income taxes in 10 of the prior 15 years, reflecting "chronic" losses he used to avoid paying taxes.

Trump, who has long resisted making his tax returns public, rejected findings from the Times report, tweeting that he had paid many millions of dollars in taxes but was entitled to depreciation and tax credits.

Vance's probe began more than two years ago and has focused on hush money payments that the president's former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen paid before the 2016 election to two women who said they had sexual encounters with Trump, which Trump denies.

The district attorney has suggested in recent court filings that his probe is now broader and could focus on bank, tax and insurance fraud, among other things.

Even if Vance gets Trump's tax returns, grand jury secrecy rules make it unlikely he will reveal their contents unless criminal charges are brought and likely not until after the Nov.

3 election.