Listen to this article

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump’s lawyers said they were considering challenging a subpoena for his tax records by criminal prosecutors. The move came a week after losing a Supreme Court ruling. A letter to a Manhattan federal judge says the challenge would be on grounds that it represented a fishing expedition or a form of harassment or retaliation against him by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. who is seeking eight years of the president’s personal and corporate tax records. Vance is seeking the records in part for a criminal probe into payments that Trump’s then-personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.

Point to be noted that Cohen arranged during the 2016 presidential race to keep the porn actress Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal from airing their claims of extramarital affairs with President Donald Trump. It is important that Trump has repeatedly denied the affair with Stormy Daniels. Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to charges related to campaign finance and lying to Congress, among other crimes. It is important that US Federal Judge Victor Marrero has scheduled a hearing for Thursday in New York.

The US Supreme Court rejected arguments on 9^th July 2020 delivered by the president’s lawyers and the Justice Department. The arguments said that the president cannot be investigated while he holds office, or that a prosecutor must show a greater need than normal to obtain the tax records. Chief Justice John Roberts said, “No citizen, not even the president, is categorically above the common duty to produce evidence when called upon in a criminal proceeding”. The court separately rejected the Democratic-led House of Representatives’ effort to see many of the records Vance sought. It is noteworthy that the recent decisions likely mean the records will not become public until at least after the general election on 3^rd November 2020.