President Donald Trump’s fight with Manhattan prosecutors entered a new phase on Friday when lawyers for the president filed an emergency motion in an appeals court to stop the release of his tax return.
Trump’s lawyers filed the motion in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals hours after a lower court judge denied his request to stop sharing his tax documents.
The same U.S. judge, Victor Marrero, on Thursday denied Trump’s attempt to rule out a lawsuit in search of eight years of his tax return as part of a Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance investigation into the Trump organization.
In the emergency motion, Trump’s lawyers asked the court to institute an immediate stay on the case, which would cause an immediate halt to the proceedings, even before making a decision on whether a frozen justification for it whole apple tax.
“The idea that the district attorney needs these records so badly that there is no time for appellate review – after he was voluntarily upheld nearly a year ago – is illegal,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “However, any damage he may suffer compared to the case-mooting damage the president will suffer.”
Vance’s office declined to comment.
Even if the appeal court rules against Trump, he has one more shot to block the release of his financial documents by asking the Supreme Court to intervene.
The case with high stakes has been going on since August 2019.
Vance’s office presented Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA, as part of an investigation into payments the Trump Organization made to two women who have been having constant affairs with the president, whom he has denied. In a lawsuit filed this month, Vance’s bureau suggested the investigation goes beyond payments to cover alleged insurance and bank fraud.
