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Trump Decries SCOTUS Rulings in Tax Records Cases: ‘This Is About Prosecutorial Misconduct’

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued two 7-2 decisions in cases related to subpoenas of President Trump’s financial records, denying him immunity in one ruling, but blocking Democrats from obtaining his tax records in the other.

The rulings are seen as a short-term victory for Trump because they virtually ensure that his tax records will be kept private until after the November election, but the president reacted with deep frustration nonetheless.

“This is about PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT,” Trump fumed on Twitter.

In the first decision, SCOTUS ruled that the president’s tax returns and business records may be turned over to a Grand Jury in New York.

“Two hundred years ago, a great jurist of our Court established that no citizen, not even the President, is categorically above the common duty to produce evidence when called upon in a criminal proceeding,” Roberts wrote in the decision.

“We reaffirm that principle today and hold that the President is neither absolutely immune from state criminal subpoenas seeking his private papers nor entitled to a heightened standard of need.”

The ruling allows Manhattan district attorney Cy Vance to obtain the president’s tax returns and financial records from various financial institutions. Vance had subpoenaed the records as part of a criminal investigation into potential wrongdoing by the president and his organization.

Roberts wrote that the president “may raise further arguments as appropriate,” in lower courts if he chooses to continue fighting Vance in the case.

In the second decision regarding congressional subpoenas, the Supreme Court blocked House Democrats from obtaining the president’s tax records. SCOTUS called for the case to be sent back to the lower court for closer review due to concerns over the separation of powers.

“The courts below did not take adequate account of the significant separation of powers concerns implicated by congressional subpoenas for the President’s information,” Roberts wrote in the second decision.

Multiple Dem-controlled House committees have subpoenaed Trump’s financial records.

The subpoenas are not directed at Trump himself. Instead, House committees want records from Deutsche Bank, Capital One and the Mazars USA accounting firm. Mazars also is the recipient of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s subpoena.

Appellate courts in Washington, D.C., and New York brushed aside the president’s arguments in decisions that focused on the fact that the subpoenas were addressed to third parties asking for records of Trump’s business and financial dealings as a private citizen, not as president.

Two congressional committees subpoenaed the bank documents as part of their investigations into Trump and his businesses. Deutsche Bank has been one of the few banks willing to lend to Trump after a series of corporate bankruptcies and defaults starting in the early 1990s.

Vance and the House Oversight and Reform Committee sought records from Mazars concerning Trump and his businesses based on payments that Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, arranged to keep two women from airing their claims of decade-old extramarital affairs with Trump during the 2016 presidential race.

Vance celebrated the Supreme Court’s ruling that the president is not categorically immune from grand jury requests.

“This is a tremendous victory for our nation’s system of justice and its founding principle that no one – not even a president – is above the law,” he said.

“Our investigation, which was delayed for almost a year by this lawsuit, will resume, guided as always by the grand jury’s solemn obligation to follow the law and the facts, wherever they may lead.”

Because a grand jury is legally required to be kept secret, any tax documents Vance turns over would purportedly not be made public anytime soon.

President Trump was not pleased with the rulings, characterizing the Democrats’ attempts to obtain his tax records as “political prosecution” and “prosecutorial misconduct.”

In a series of tweets, the president complained that the deck seems to be stacked against him.

“Courts in the past have given ‘broad deference’. BUT NOT ME!” he tweeted.

“We catch the other side SPYING on my campaign, the biggest political crime and scandal in U.S. history, and NOTHING HAPPENS,” the president wrote.

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About Debra Heine

Debra Heine is a conservative Catholic mom of six and longtime political pundit. She has written for several conservative news websites over the years, including Breitbart and PJ Media.

Photo: (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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