Trump lawyers renew legal assault on tax records subpoena
Published:Tuesday | July 28, 2020 | 9:16 AM
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s lawyers filed fresh arguments Monday to try to block a criminal subpoena for his tax records, saying it was issued in bad faith, might have been politically motivated and calling it a harassment of the president.
Lawyers filed a rewritten lawsuit in Manhattan federal court to challenge the subpoena by a state prosecutor on grounds they believe conform with how the US Supreme Court said the subpoena can be contested.
They asked a judge to declare it “invalid and unenforceable.”
The high court ruled earlier this month that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. could subpoena tax records from Trump’s accountant over his objections.
But the court said Trump could challenge the subpoena as improper just as anyone else can.
Trump’s lawyers had argued that the president could not be criminally investigated while he was in office.
In their new court papers, Trump’s lawyers said the subpoena of his tax records was “wildly overboard” and “amounts to harassment of the President.”
They said it was issued in bad faith, copying a Congressional subpoena.
“Whether the District Attorney photocopied a congressional subpoena for political reasons, for efficiency reasons, or for both, he knowingly and intentionally issued a wildly overboard subpoena for the President’s records,” the lawyers said.
They said the subpoena seeks detailed information about all of Trump’s assets in the US and abroad for a 10-year period.
“Simply put, it asks for everything,” the lawyers wrote.
Vance sought the tax records in part for a probe of how Trump’s then-personal lawyer arranged during the 2016 presidential race to keep the porn actress Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal from airing claims of extramarital affairs with Trump.
Trump has denied the affairs.
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