A U.S District Judge ordered Trump to release his Tax Returns

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The U.S President Donald Trump has been ordered to release his tax returns. A U.S district judge Victor Marrero said the claim of immunity was extraordinary. He said, “This court can’t endorse such a categorical and limitless assertion of presidential immunity from the judicial process”. A New York district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., has subpoenaed eight years of the president’s personal and corporate tax returns, from 2011 to 2018, and other legal documents from accountancy firm Mazars USA as part of a criminal investigation into hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.

The legal team of Trump had objected to the demand, saying that he would suffer irreparable harm if his tax returns were made available. Trump’s lawyers said they would appeal the latest decision. Trump himself reacted by claiming the ruling was part of a political plot against him. He tweeted, “The Radical Left Democrats have failed on all fronts, so now they are pushing local New York City and State Democrat prosecutors to go get President Trump. A thing like this has never happened to any President before. Not even close”!

Trump has steadfastly rejected to release the documents since entering the White House. Trump said in 2016 that he would be happy to release them if elected. He has since backtracked, claiming variously that he was unable to do so while they were under audit and insisting that people were not interested in seeing them. Judge Marrero wrote, “As the court reads it, presidential immunity would stretch to cover every phase of criminal proceedings, including investigations, grand jury proceedings, and subpoenas, indictment, prosecution, arrest, trial, conviction, and incarceration”.

Marrero added, “That constitutional protection presumably would encompass any conduct, at any time, in any forum, whether federal or state, and whether the president acted alone or in concert with other individuals”. He also said that he could not endorse such a categorical and limitless assertion of presidential immunity from the judicial process as being countenanced by the nation’s constitutional plan. Trump’s lawyers immediately appealed the ruling to the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals. It granted a temporary stay of the judge’s ruling pending expedited review by the court.