Washington: An American appeals court will hear oral arguments today in the dispute between President Donald Trump and the Manhattan district attorney’s office over the president’s financial and tax records, Prensa Latina publishes.
The prosecutor of that entity in New York, Cyrus Vance, began investigating the Republican president and his business practices more than two years ago, in an investigation that was initially reported as focused on secret payments before the 2016 elections to two women who said they had been intimate with Trump.
However, Vance’s office showed through their court filings that the inquiry is much broader and could focus on a variety of financial crimes, including tax and insurance fraud.
Although that body has not released details about the investigation, it did cite news reports and public testimony alleging misconduct on the part of the president and his businesses, which, prosecutors said, would warrant a grand jury investigation.
The investigation has stalled since in August 2019 Vance issued a require to Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars, requesting eight years of the president’s personal tax returns.
Trump and his lawyers have fought that request for a year, first on the grounds that, as incumbent president, he was immune from a state criminal investigation, but that was refuted by a Supreme Court ruling.
Last month, meanwhile, the president’s lawyers again lashed out at Vance’s request, arguing that the subpoena was “enormously broad” and “issued in bad faith”, as well as calling it politically motivated.
As part of this legal battle, the president asked the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, based in New York, to reverse a ruling issued last month by Judge Victor Marrero, who dismissed the president’s attempt to block the subpoena.
Through a judicial presentation issued Monday, facing the hearing on Friday, Vance suggested for the first time that there are sufficient reasons to inquire about the president and his businesses regarding tax fraud.
For their part, the attorneys for the head of state yesterday accused the prosecutor of resorting to ‘speculation and innuendo’ to justify their demands.
Whatever the outcome in the appeals court that will hear the parties today, it is highly likely that the dispute will reach the Supreme Court, so it should not be resolved before the upcoming November 3 elections, in which Trump will seek his re-election.
Facing that appointment at the polls, the Republican remains the only president since the 1970s who refuses to make his tax returns public.
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