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Tuesday, February 11, 2025
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US Supreme Court to rule on Trump’s tax returns

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Daily US Times: The US Supreme Court is expected to issue opinions today on two cases whether President Trump’s financial records or tax returns can be examined by Congress and prosecutors – a ruling with potentially huge political consequences.

Mr Trump, who made his money as a property developer, refuses to share documents concerning his business and fortune. His lawyers argue he enjoys total immunity while in office.

The supreme court ruling will test that claim and has implications on how far US lawmakers can scrutinise the president.

Even if the ruling goes to Congress’s favour, it would not necessarily make Mr Trump’s tax returns public before his bid for re-election in November.

Mr Trump is the first president since Richard Nixon in the 1970s not to have made his tax returns public.

He calls the investigation into his tax affairs a “witch hunt” and sees the congressional case as a device to harass him politically.

Why has this gone to the Supreme Court?

Two House of Representatives committees and New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance are demanding the release of his tax returns and other information. The House is democrat controlled and Mr Cyrus is also a Democrat.

The subpoenas – orders to hand over evidence – were issued last year to Mazars USA, who are Mr Trump’s accountants, and to major Trump lenders Capital One and Deutsche Bank.

Lower courts in New York and Washington ruled against the president in all cases, but those decisions have been put on hold pending a final court ruling.

Deutsche Bank was one of the few banks willing to lend to Mr Trump after a series of corporate bankruptcies in the 1990s, and the documents sought include records related to Trump, the Trump Organization, and his family.

The banks and the accounting firm said they would release the records if ordered.

Mr Trump’s lawyers argued that Congress had no authority to issue the subpoenas, and no valid justification to seek the records.

Why is it sensitive politically?

Damaging revelations about Trump’s financial affairs could hurt his campaign for re-election in November. His ratings has already slumped in opinion polls as critics accuse him if poor handling of coronavirus pandemic.

The New York investigation covers alleged hush money payments made by Mr Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen to two women – former Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult film star Stormy Daniels – who both say they had affairs with Mr Trump.

Such payments could violate campaign financing laws, but the president denies the affairs took place.

You may read: President Trump now in publicly dispute with health officials as virus rages

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