A new federal court filing from Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance as part of an effort to obtain President Trump’s tax returns suggests that Trump is the target of a deeper probe by the prosecutor into potential bank and insurance fraud.
WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 31: U.S. President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with members of the … [+] National Association of Police Organizations Leadership in the Cabinet Room of the White House July 31, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker-Pool/Getty Images)Getty Images
KEY FACTS
The filing seeks to dismiss a lawsuit by Trump’s attorneys that alleges the prosecutors are overreaching and acting in “bad faith” in their attempts to subpoena Trump’s personal and corporate tax documents.
Vance’s office calls the lawsuit “baseless” and casts it as an attempt to “delay the grand jury’s investigation.”
The filing notes the lawsuit’s claim that the subpoena is overbroad “rests on the false premise that the grand jury’s investigation is limited to so-called ‘hush-money’ payments made by Michael Cohen on behalf of Plaintiff in 2016.”
While the filing claims that Vance’s office “bears no affirmative burden to justify the breadth of the Mazars Subpoena,” it nonetheless points to public reporting that it says “establishes a satisfactory predicate for the Mazars Subpoena.”
The filing cites a Washington Post article written by David Fahrenthold in March 2019 detailing how Trump reportedly sent “deeply flawed” documents over-inflating his net worth to apply for loans and insurance premium reductions, make business deals and boast to journalists.
“As this reporting makes clear, at the time the Mazars Subpoena was issued, there were public allegations of possible criminal activity at Plaintiff’s New York County-based Trump Organization dating back over a decade,” the filing states.
Key Background
Vance initially subpoenaed Trump’s accounting firm Mazars USA in August 2019 for Trump’s tax returns. The probe was initially believed to focus on “hush-money” payments made by Trump fixer Michael Cohen to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Trump’s lawyers have attempted to argue that a sitting president is immune to a criminal investigation, but that argument was soundly rejected by the Supreme Court in July, which sent the case back down to a lower court for further argumentation.
Crucial Quote
“What the president’s lawyers are seeking here is delay,” argued Carey R. Dunne, an attorney in the Manhattan DA’s office, according to the New York Times. “Let’s not let delay kill this case,” he warned of the case dragging on past the statute of limitations for crimes Trump may have committed.
Chief Critic
“Our strategy seeks due process,” Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow said in a rebuttal to the notion that the president’s legal team only seeks to delay the case, the Times reported.
