Trump plans to try again to block prosecutors from seeking his tax returns

WASHINGTON, 16 July. - (ANA)  -  US President President Donald Trump plans to again try to block prosecutors from seeking his tax returns, his lawyers said, days after a Supreme Court ruling against him.
 
Trump’s lawyers wrote to the federal judge in Manhattan who originally presided over the case, saying they plan to argue that the district attorney’s subpoena was too broad and politically motivated.

The president and the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., a Democrat, have been locked in a battle over the records for almost a year.

The filing came less than a week after the Supreme Court struck down Mr. Trump’s previous argument — that the subpoena was invalid because a sitting president could not be criminally investigated.

In the new filing, Mr. Trump’s lawyers noted that the high court’s decision allowed him to raise other objections: that the subpoena was “motivated by a desire to harass or is conducted in bad faith,” and that it would impede his constitutional duties.

The district attorney issued the subpoena to the president’s accounting firm last August, seeking records dating to 2011 as part of an investigation into hush-money payments made to an adult film actress who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump. The president has denied the affair.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court rejected his position by a 7-to-2 vote, but it left open the possibility that he could raise new arguments against Mr. Vance’s subpoena in the lower court.

No matter who ultimately wins the battle, it is unlikely that Mr. Trump’s financial records will become public any time soon. If they are turned over to prosecutors, they will remain shielded under grand jury secrecy and may emerge only if charges are brought and they are introduced as evidence at a trial.  - (ANA) -

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