Trump lawyers renew legal assault on tax records subpoena
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s lawyers filed fresh arguments Monday to try to block or severely limit a criminal subpoena for his tax records, calling it a harassment of the president.
Lawyers filed a rewritten lawsuit in Manhattan federal court to challenge the subpoena by Manhattan's state prosecutor on grounds they believe conform with how the U.S. Supreme Court said the subpoena can be contested.
The high court ruled earlier this month that a Manhattan prosecutor could subpoena tax records from Trump’s accountant over his objections.
But the court said he could challenge the subpoena as improper just as anyone else can.
Trump’s lawyers had argued that the president could not be criminally investigated while he was in office.
In their new court papers, Trump’s lawyers said the subpoena of his tax records was “wildly overbroad” and “amounts to harassment of the President.”
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. sought the tax records in part for a probe of how Trump’s then-personal lawyer arranged during the 2016 presidential race to keep the porn actress Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal from airing claims of extramarital affairs with Trump. Trump has denied the affairs.
Vance, a Democrat, has requested eight years of the Republican president’s personal and corporate tax records.
The Supreme Court returned the case to a federal judge in Manhattan who has arranged for both sides to finish filing their legal arguments over challenges to the subpoena by mid-August.
Last year, the same judge ruled against Trump in a written opinion that was upheld by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.