US Supreme Court allows release of Trump tax returns

The Supreme Court has refused to move in to block the turnover of its tax records to a New York state prosecutor in a major setback for former President Donald Trump.

The decision of the court is the evident result of a long legal battle which once before has already hit the high court.

Trump’s tax records are not supposed to become public as part of prosecutors’ criminal investigation, but the high court’s action is a blow to Trump because he has long fought on so many fronts to keep his tax records shielded from view. The ongoing investigation that the records are part of could also become an issue for Trump in his life after the presidency. Trump has called it “a fishing expedition” and “a continuation of the witch hunt — the greatest witch hunt in history.”

The Supreme Court waited months to act in the case. The last of the written briefs in the case was filed Oct. 19. But a court that includes three Trump appointees waited through the election, Trump’s challenge to his defeat and a month after Trump left office before issuing its order.

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The court offered no explanation for the delay, and the legal issue before the justices did not involve whether Trump was due any special deference because he was president.

For Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who has been pursuing Trump's tax returns as part of an investigation since 2019, the court's order is a victory. The reports of the Mazars accounting firm that has long done work for Trump and his businesses were subpoenaed by Vance, a Democrat. It will cooperate with the warrant, Mazars said, but Trump, a Republican, sued to delay the publication of the documents.

Part of the investigation involves payments to two women, porn star Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal, to keep them silent during the presidential campaign of 2016 about alleged Trump extramarital affairs. Trump has denied these points.