Appeals court agrees Trump tax returns can be turned over

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s tax returns can be turned over to state criminal investigators by his personal accountant, a federal appeals court in New York ruled Monday.

The ruling by the 2nd United States Circuit Court of Appeals is certain to be further appealed; lawyers for the president promised to do so and the three-judge appeals panel predicted it.

In the written decision, the judges said they only decided whether a state prosecutor can demand Trump’s personal financial records while the president is in office.

The appeals court said it did not consider whether the president is immune from indictment and prosecution while in office or whether the president may be ordered to produce documents in a state criminal proceeding.

“We hold that any presidential immunity from state criminal process does not bar the enforcement of such a subpoena,” the 2nd Circuit Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann wrote.

The decision upholds a lower-court ruling rejecting Trump’s lawsuit seeking to block his accountant from letting a grand jury see his tax records from 2011.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. sought the records in a broader probe that includes payments made to buy the silence of two women, porn star Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal, who claim they had affairs with the president before the 2016 presidential election. Trump has denied them.

Danny Frost, a spokesman for Vance, declined comment.

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