Federal appeals court upholds New York subpoena for Trump's taxes

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that President Trump’s accounting firm must turn over his personal financial records including eight years of tax returns to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

The court, though, is keeping the subpoena seeking the records at bay, for now, so the president can appeal its decision to the Supreme Court.

The dispute arose in 2018 after District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. began a criminal probe into the Trump Organization and its business dealings in New York.

He subpoenaed Mazars USA, the president’s accounting firm, for financial information, including eight years of the president’s tax returns, which Mr. Trump has refused to release to the public since first announcing his presidential campaign in 2015.

In June, the Supreme Court ruled the subpoena could go forward against the president in the New York state probe. Once the case was remanded back down to the lower courts, the president argued the subpoena was issued in bad faith — for political harassment — and was overbroad.

The 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals, though, rejected those claims on Wednesday.

“Grand juries routinely issue multiple subpoenas seeking different information from different recipients during the course of their investigations, because, after all, they have a duty to follow ‘every available clue’ wherever it may lead,” the court wrote in its 35-page opinion.

The matter likely won’t be resolved before the Nov. 3 presidential election.