NEW YORK: Donald Trump cannot block a prosecutor's subpoena for eight years of his tax returns, a federal judge ruled on Thursday, in the latest setback in the US president's longstanding effort to keep his finances under wraps.
US District Judge Victor Marrero in Manhattan rejected Trump's claims that the grand jury subpoena from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance to the president's accounting firm Mazars USA was "wildly overbroad" and issued in bad faith.
In a 103-page decision, Marrero also said letting Trump block the subpoena would amount to an "undue expansion" of presidential immunity. Trump quickly appealed the decision and filed an emergency motion to delay turning over his tax returns, saying enforcing the subpoena would cause him irreparable harm by disclosing his "private, confidential information." The litigation and grand jury secrecy rules make it unlikely Trump's financial records will become public before Nov. 3, when the president is seeking reelection.
A spokesman for Vance declined to comment. Trump has long fought efforts by lawmakers and prosecutors to obtain those records, and by withholding his tax returns has departed from the decades-long practice of his predecessors.
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