Donald Trump is now required to provide accounting data for an eight-year period to a New York attorney. A federal judge concluded this on Thursday. It’s a new turn in a legal tug of war over the US president’s tax returns. Trump has always refused to disclose such documents.
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Judge Victor Marrero, in a 103-page argument, concluded that Attorney Cyrus Vance’s question is justified. Vance is a Democrat who, in the context of an inquest, has asked the Mazars accounting firm to review Trump’s 2011-2018 tax returns.
The president’s lawyers had argued in July that the petition to view the documents was “too broad”, that the attorney was “in bad faith” and that the American president would enjoy “absolute immunity”, but that argument had been rejected by the US Supreme Court in a July 9 judgment.
Stormy Daniels
Originally, the investigation focused on a transfer of money to the account of the US Republican presidential candidate Trump for the 2016 campaign. The money would have served to pay hush money to the porn actress Stormy Daniels, but that is in violation of the election campaign financing law.
The attorney’s services have recently announced that the investigation is broader to include illegal maneuvers by the Trump Organization, an unlisted company that controls Trump’s real estate operations.
However the tug-of-war ends, no one believes Trump’s tax returns will be publicized before November’s presidential election this year. Unlike his predecessors as president, Trump never wanted to disclose his tax returns, as this would give rise to speculation about his fortune and potential conflicts of interest.
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