The Supreme Court ruled in a 7-2 decision against President Donald Trump’s legal team defense of attempting to claim immunity from subpoenas while in office. The ruling affects the key piece of evidence in two cases against the President, his tax returns. Major mainstream media outlets are mixed when it comes to reporting what all of this means.
What Does This Mean?
To make a long story less long, the Supreme Court’s decision do not guarantee the release of Trump’s tax returns. As a matter of fact, their decision essentially guarantees that the tax returns will not come out before November, which is the goal of the left who are currently demanding them.
There are two cases to discuss that involve Trump’s tax returns. The first is the Manhattan District Attorney, Cy Vance, and his criminal investigation into the Trump Organization on allegations of hush money paid to two women that Trump allegedly had an affair with and also shady business practices. The DA is requesting years of Trump’s tax returns in an attempt to trace where certain moneys went to bring about a criminal indictment.
Ball’s in the Low Court
The Supreme Court kicked both current cases against the President involving his tax returns back down to the lower court. But since SCOTUS did throw out Trump’s “immunity” defense, then Deutsche Bank will respond to the Manhattan DA’s order for his financial records and/or Trump would hand over his tax returns. But if the DA gets the tax returns, they would not immidiately go to him, and they may never do so.
Trump has legal recourse to fight back against the case in Manhattan. If he is successful, then the taxes don’t get handed over. If he is unsuccessful, then the taxes get handed to the Grand Jury. Not to Cy Vance, directly. If the Grand Jury finds enough evidence in Trump’s tax returns to bring forth an indictment, then the returns go to Vance and probably become public. But that’s leaning pretty heavy on “ifs and maybes” without much else in the way of affirmatives.
Political Maneuvering
Then there is the House who is requesting Trump’s taxes. Michael Cohen gave under-oath testimony that Trump lowers or raises his revenue on his taxes depending upon what puts him in a better financial situation. The thought process from the House is that Trump may be lying on his taxes which would be exposed on his Income Disclosure Form, which he has already filled out and is required. The House wants to fact-check Trump with his own documents.
SOCTUS again kicked the House case back down to low court. The majority opinion says that low courts need to take a deep look at separation of power. If the Legislative Branch (Congress) simply file a ton of legal action and create restrictive laws directed towards the President, that is considered meddling with the Executive Branch. Totally against the Constitution and is quite frankly a non-starter.
Medium-Rare Nothingburger
None of the aforementioned cases or anything else against the President has proven to be serious. All of it is fake. Just a way to attack the man and get him out of office. And it’s funny how so many media articles say something to the effect of “this won’t come out before November.) What if it comes out March? What difference if it’s a few months later if justice will be served.?
The plan is pretty clear now. All of this legal action against Trump nearly mirrors 2016. The only difference is that the media now take him seriously and are pulling every rabbit out of their collective hat to prevent him from winning again.
SOURCES:
Supreme Court rejects Trump argument on shielding tax returns – POLITICO
Manhattan DA asks judge to toss Trump bid to keep tax returns secret
Supreme Court rules Manhattan prosecutor can access Trump financial records – CBS News
Supreme Court rules Manhattan DA can obtain Trump taxes – WHYY
SCOTUS rules Trump not immune from New York’s subpoena
Rep. Jim Jordan: SCOTUS ‘punted’ on Trump tax returns, opened door for audit by ‘political hacks’ | Fox News
