Trump to renew challenges to Manhattan prosecutor's subpoena for
financial records
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[July 16, 2020]
By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald
Trump plans further challenges to a Manhattan prosecutor's efforts to
seek his financial records, despite a U.S. Supreme Court decision
allowing the pursuit.
According to a joint filing by lawyers for Trump and Manhattan District
Attorney Cyrus Vance, the president plans by July 27 to file a complaint
raising arguments against Vance's grand jury subpoena, which Trump said
the nation's highest court allowed him to make.
Vance countered that most of these arguments have already been rejected
in the litigation, and Trump deserves no special treatment because he is
president. The district attorney agreed not to enforce the subpoena
through July 27.
U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in Manhattan has scheduled a Thursday
hearing on the matter.
The case concerns a subpoena last August to Trump's accounting firm
Mazars USA for eight years of personal and corporate tax returns,
related to Vance's criminal probe into Trump and his Trump Organization.
That probe was spurred by news about hush money paid before the 2016
election, including to buy the silence of adult film actress Stormy
Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal about their claimed
relationships with Trump, which he denies.
Vance had prevailed on July 9 at the Supreme Court, which rejected
Trump's claim he was immune from criminal probes while in the White
House and could block the release of his records.
"No citizen, not even the President, is categorically above the common
duty to produce evidence when called upon in a criminal proceeding,"
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.
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President Donald Trump attends a news conference in the Rose Garden
at the White House in Washington, U.S., July 14, 2020.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
The court separately rejected the Democratic-led House of
Representatives' effort to see many of the records Vance sought.
Its decisions likely mean the records will not become public until
at least after the Nov. 3 election.
In Wednesday's filing, Trump's lawyers said the Republican president
may argue that Vance's subpoena was too broad, or that enforcement
might "impede his constitutional duties."
They may also argue that Vance, a Democrat, pursued the subpoena to
harass Trump, or retaliate against his policies.
Vance has denied acting in bad faith, and said the motives for a
subpoena are not something courts should normally examine.
The case is Trump v Vance et al, U.S. District Court, Southern
District of New York, No. 19-08694.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Chizu
Nomiyama, Jonathan Oatis and Tom Brown)
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