A week after losing a Supreme Court ruling, president Donald Trump’s lawyers said on Wednesday that they were considering challenging a subpoena for his tax records by criminal prosecutors.
According to a letter to a Manhattan federal judge, 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.
Mr Vance is seeking the records in part for a criminal probe into payments that Mr Trump’s then-personal lawyer, Michael 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 Mr Trump. He has denied the affairs.
Mr Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to charges related to campaign finance and lying to Congress, among other crimes.
Judge Victor Marrero has scheduled a hearing for Thursday in New York.
On 9 July the Supreme Court rejected arguments by the president’s lawyers and the Justice Department 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.
“No citizen, not even the president, is categorically above the common duty to produce evidence when called upon in a criminal proceeding,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote.
The court separately rejected the Democratic-led House of Representatives’ effort to see many of the records Vance sought.
Its decisions likely mean the records will not become public until at least after the general election on 3 November.
With reporting from wire services
