President Donald Trump fails to block tax return subpoena

NEW YORK: A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected Donald Trump's effort to block Manhattan's district attorney from obtaining eight years of his tax returns for a criminal probe into the U.S. president and his businesses.

In a 3-0 decision, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan rejected Trump's accusations that a grand jury subpoena from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance was overly broad, or issued in bad faith to harass him. "The President has a 'difficult' burden and an 'unenviable' task: to make plausible allegations that could persuade the court that the subpoena that has been served on him could not possibly serve any investigative purpose that the grand jury could legitimately be pursuing," it wrote. "His complaint fails to do so."

Wednesday's decision heralds a renewed clash between Trump and Vance at the U.S. Supreme Court.


That court in July rejected the Republican president's argument he was immune from criminal probes while in the White House. But it said he could raise other objections to the subpoena to his longtime accounting firm, Mazars USA, for his corporate and personal tax returns from 2011 to 2018.

Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for Trump, said the president will appeal to the Supreme Court. Both sides agreed Vance would not enforce the subpoena during an appeal, according to court papers.

A spokesman for Vance did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The unsigned decision upheld an Aug. 20 ruling by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in Manhattan.