Supreme Court Allows DA Access to Trump’s Tax Returns, Opening Door to Criminal Trial for Former President
A new Supreme Court stay instructs attorneys to hand over numerous years of former President Donald Trump's tax returns and financial records to New York prosecutors. The decision to allow the long-hidden finances of Trump is the result of an eighteen months-long legal battle.
The former president’s attorneys fought to block the release of his tax returns and other financial documents from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. But in a unanimous decision, the highest court in the land ruled the Trump attorneys must release the mountain of financial records to the ongoing criminal investigation.
The criminal case began in earnest in 2018 as reports were leaked of two women paid hush money to keep their affairs with Trump a secret. Trump denies both the affairs and the hush money payments.
At the time, a key figure in Trump's inner circle who was charged with numerous federal crimes said the past president instructed him to pay off the two women to avoid bad publicity. In an ABC interview, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen said Trump signed off on the hush money.
”He directed me to make the payments,” said Cohen. “Nothing at the Trump organization was ever done unless it was run through Mr. Trump.”
Courts sentenced Cohen to three years in prison for lying to Congress, campaign finance violations, and tax evasion and fined him $2 million.
The New York case grew quickly to include allegations of tax, banking, insurance, and other fraud. In part, the investigation is researching if the Trump Organization may have orchestrated the value of numerous property values to fraudulently obtain bank financing and do deals with insurance companies.
This Supreme Court plea was the second time that Trump’s lawyers attempted to block Trump’s financial records' release. In the summer of 2020, the Supreme Court denied the past president’s attorney’s claim that state prosecutors cannot investigate a “sitting president.”
The justices ruled all citizens, including presidents, must fulfill “the common duty to produce evidence.”
The Supreme Court’s refusal to block Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.’s subpoena for Trump’s private and corporate financial records handily opens the door to a past president facing a criminal trial.
Vance and his team's sweeping investigation focuses upon claims that Trump personally and within his corporation received bank loans and tax benefits by purposefully manipulating property values.
Prosecutors now have access to eight years of Trump’s personal and cooperate tax returns, plus all financial records. However, the sheer volume of the millions of documents is daunting.
The Manhattan prosecutors will need to review the documents, working with forensic accountants to investigate any wrongdoing.
Faced with the voluminous project, Vance hired outside consultants experienced with corporate, organized crime, and white-collar crimes to assist his internal team. Vance hired FTI, a consulting firm well versed in tax issues, commercial real estate and more. The consulting company is expected to utilize sophisticated analysis systems to create programs to discover patterns among the trove of financial documents.
As part of the massive investigation, the District Attorney's investigators had to physically visit the law firm’s offices to remove truckloads of physical copies of about eight years of Trump's personal and corporate financial records. The documents are now in Vance’s possession.
Vance’s access to the financial documents does not automatically mean that details of the records will be made public. Under grand jury secrecy laws, Vance must keep these financial records private unless he files charges against Trump.
If Vance files official criminal charges against the former president, financial records will appear as evidence in court, which may then become public.
The Supreme Court ruling to allow the Manhattan District Attorney’s office to access Trump’s personal and corporate financial records is a long-fought public defeat for the past president. Beginning in 2016 and throughout his term as president, Trump refused to share his tax returns.
The accelerating criminal investigation of the former president is expected to take months due to the sheer volume of the financial documents.
Trump calls the investigation a “fishing expedition” and “witch hunt.”
Vance begs to differ, but kept his statement brief for the press.
“The work continues,” said Vance.
