https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/11/nyregion/trump-tax-returns-lawsuit.html
Trump Taxes: Justice Dept. Asks Judges to Block Subpoena
But the department did not agree with President Trump’s lawyers that a sitting president is immune from criminal investigation.
The Justice Department asked a federal appeals court on Friday to stop the release of President Trump’s tax returns to the Manhattan district attorney’s office, arguing that local prosecutors should have to meet a very high legal bar before investigating a sitting president.
The filing meant Mr. Trump’s own Justice Department was lending support to his attempt to block a subpoena demanding eight years of his personal and corporate tax returns. The district attorney’s office issued the subpoena to Mr. Trump’s accounting firm in late August as part of an investigation into hush-money payments made before the 2016 presidential election.
But in its filing, the Justice Department, which is led by Attorney General William P. Barr, stopped short of endorsing Mr. Trump’s most sweeping argument: that sitting presidents are totally immune from all criminal investigations.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers had made the argument in a lawsuit attempting to shield his tax returns from the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr.
Judge Victor Marrero of United States District Court in Manhattan dismissed the lawsuit and rejected that position, which he called “repugnant to the nation’s governmental structure and constitutional values.”
The Justice Department had not previously weighed in with its view of the merits of Mr. Trump’s lawsuit, which made an argument that has not been tested in the courts.
But after Mr. Trump appealed Judge Marrero’s ruling, the department wrote to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, saying it wanted to provide its views in a case that raised “a number of significant constitutional issues that potentially implicate the interests of the United States.”
Even though the United States is not a party to the lawsuit, it has the right to give its views.
Trump Taxes: Justice Dept. Asks Judges to Block Subpoena
But the department did not agree with President Trump’s lawyers that a sitting president is immune from criminal investigation.
The Justice Department asked a federal appeals court on Friday to stop the release of President Trump’s tax returns to the Manhattan district attorney’s office, arguing that local prosecutors should have to meet a very high legal bar before investigating a sitting president.
The filing meant Mr. Trump’s own Justice Department was lending support to his attempt to block a subpoena demanding eight years of his personal and corporate tax returns. The district attorney’s office issued the subpoena to Mr. Trump’s accounting firm in late August as part of an investigation into hush-money payments made before the 2016 presidential election.
But in its filing, the Justice Department, which is led by Attorney General William P. Barr, stopped short of endorsing Mr. Trump’s most sweeping argument: that sitting presidents are totally immune from all criminal investigations.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers had made the argument in a lawsuit attempting to shield his tax returns from the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr.
Judge Victor Marrero of United States District Court in Manhattan dismissed the lawsuit and rejected that position, which he called “repugnant to the nation’s governmental structure and constitutional values.”
The Justice Department had not previously weighed in with its view of the merits of Mr. Trump’s lawsuit, which made an argument that has not been tested in the courts.
But after Mr. Trump appealed Judge Marrero’s ruling, the department wrote to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, saying it wanted to provide its views in a case that raised “a number of significant constitutional issues that potentially implicate the interests of the United States.”
Even though the United States is not a party to the lawsuit, it has the right to give its views.