Supreme Court rules Trump's financial documents can be obtained in criminal probe

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday a New York district attorney can obtain President Trump’s financial documents in a criminal probe.

The ruling was 7-2.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. wrote the opinion of the court and said the president cannot have absolute immunity from a state criminal subpoena. They remanded the case back to the lower court for further review.

“Two hundred years ago, a great jurist of our Court established that no citizen, not even the President, is categorically above the common duty to produce evidence when called upon in a criminal proceeding,” the chief justice wrote.

“We reaffirm that principle today and hold that the President is neither absolutely immune from state criminal subpoenas seeking his private papers nor entitled to a heightened standard,” he added.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito, Jr. would have sided with the president.

The justices weighed whether Mr. Trump’s financial records can be obtained from a third party, like his accounting firm, in a state criminal probe while the president is in office. Eight years of the president’s tax records were also sought as part of a criminal probe by the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.

Mr. Trump’s legal team had argued that the president had immunity and the Democrats were seeking to harass him.