Secrets and lies

Meanwhile on the lower floors of Trump Is a Criminal Tower, he’s suing in New York to keep his tax returns hidden.

President Donald Trump asked a federal judge Thursday to block an effort by New York prosecutors to obtain his tax returns.

Trump’s attorneys filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New York against the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who recently subpoenaed the president’s accounting firm for eight years of Trump’s state and federal returns.

The lawsuit opens a new legal front in Trump’s long-running fight to prevent his tax returns from becoming public and comes as his campaign is fighting a separate effort in California. A new law in the Democratic-led state says presidential candidates must release five years of tax returns to appear on the state’s March 2020 primary ballot. Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee have sued, and a hearing is set Thursday in federal court in Sacramento.

Meanwhile, Democratic-led congressional committees are trying to obtain his tax returns and other records that could provide a window into his finances. Trump and three of his children filed a lawsuit in April seeking to block two House committees from getting records that his longtime lender, Deutsche Bank, has said includes tax returns. And in July, the president sued to block the application of a new state law in New York that could allow a House committee to obtain his state tax returns.

Making tax returns public has been a voluntary move until now, but Trump’s adamant refusal to do what presidential candidates (and presidents) have been doing since Watergate kind of hints at dirty secrets.

Comments are closed.