Judge tosses Trump’s attempt to block subpoena from Manhattan prosecutors for financial docs

 

LEGAL

Judge tosses Trump’s attempt to block subpoena from Manhattan prosecutors for financial docs

 

Trump's attorneys filed an emergency stay of the ruling pending an appeal.

 

By KYLE CHENEY

08/20/2020 11:06 AM EDT

Updated: 08/20/2020 11:58 AM EDT

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/20/cy-vance-subpoena-trump-documents-399256

 

A federal judge Thursday has thrown out President Donald Trump's effort to block Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance from subpoenaing his financial records, the latest legal setback for the president that comes weeks after the Supreme Court ruled Trump is not immune from the investigation.

 

In rejecting Trump's effort, Victor Marrero, a New York-based federal judge who had previously ruled against Trump in the same case, described Trump's position "as unprecedented and far-reaching as it is perilous to the rule of law."

 

"Justice requires an end to this controversy," Marrero concluded in his 103-page ruling.

 

The ruling is a resounding rebuke of Trump's latest effort to block investigators from accessing his financial records, this time in connection with a criminal inquiry in Manhattan. Trump's lawyers had initially argued he was immune from all criminal process because of immunity conferred by his position as president, a claim Marrero noted every court has since rejected.

 

Trump's attorneys on Thursday filed an emergency stay of the ruling pending an appeal. It's unclear whether other courts will take up the appeal, and Vance's office declined to comment about next steps.

 

"The President respectfully disagrees with [Marrero's] decision and believes there is a likelihood of reversal on appeal," Trump's lawyers say in their motion for a stay. "But what matters most at this point is that, absent a stay, the subpoena will be enforced before the President has been afforded any appellate review of his overbreadth and bad-faith claims."

 

When asked Thursday about the ruling, Trump told reporters that “we'll probably end up back in the Supreme Court.”

 

“This is a continuation of the witch hunt, the greatest witch hunt in history,” he said. “There's never been anything like it."

 

The ruling is also the latest indication of the legal peril surrounding the president, who received news of the ruling just minutes after his former top aide Steve Bannon was arrested in New York and indicted for alleged financial crimes related to a "Build the Wall" fundraising effort.

 

Trump has successfully fended off legal attempts by Vance and the House of Representatives to access his financial records for a year. The Supreme Court effectively delayed the House's effort to access those documents last month, ruling that lower courts hadn't applied enough scrutiny to lawmakers' subpoena. By the same token, the court rejected the notion that Trump was immune from investigation at the local level but noted that he is permitted to challenge subpoenas for being issued in bad faith or seeking too broad a range of materials.

 

Trump subsequently amended his legal claims to assert that Vance's subpoena was, in fact, overbroad and issued to harass the president. But Marrero said the president's claim, despite its sweeping conclusions, lacked evidence to back them up.

 

It's unlikely Vance's effort will result in any of Trump's records becoming public ahead of the 2020 election.

 

Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.