Once again, a liberal judge has handed Donald Trump a major defeat in court.
President Trump has been trying to keep his tax returns private, but Trump lost his appeal in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and must now turn over eight years of tax returns to New York prosecutors.
The Argument
Trump’s attorneys had argued that Trump was immune from these proceedings because he is a sitting president.
The argument he presented to the court stated, “Because the Mazars subpoena attempts to criminally investigate a sitting president, it’s unconstitutional.
“This court should declare it invalid and enjoin its enforcement until the president is no longer in office.”
In the initial decision, the lawsuit was tossed by Judge Victor Marrero, a Clinton appointment.
In his ruling, Judge Marrero stated, “As the Court reads it, presidential immunity would stretch to cover every phase of criminal proceedings, including investigations, grand jury proceedings, and subpoenas, indictment, prosecution, arrest, trial, conviction, and incarceration.
“That constitutional protection presumably would encompass any conduct, at any time, in any forum, whether federal or state, and whether the President acted alone or in concert with other individuals.”
Now, Trump has also lost in the appeals court in a decision that read:
“We hold, however, that any presidential immunity from state criminal process does not extend to investigative steps like the grand jury subpoena at issue here.
“We accordingly AFFIRM the district court’s decision on the immunity question, which we construe as an order denying a preliminary injunction, VACATE the judgment of the district court dismissing the complaint on the ground of Younger abstention, and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
To the Supreme Court We Go
After losing the appeal, Trump’s attorneys have only one option left, and they are going to take… go to the Supreme Court.
Jay Sekulow, one of Trump’s personal attorneys, stated, “This issue raised in this case goes to the heart of our Republic.
“The constitutional issues are significant.”
While Trump has been put in front of only Democrat-appointed judges so far in this case, the Supreme Court is clearly more fairly balanced.
What will be interesting here is to see how the liberal side of the court votes on this because the constitutional issues seem to be pretty clear.
In a fair world, the Supreme Court would rule 9-0 in Trump’s favor, but this is far from a fair world.
We are going to find out once and for all just how political our Supreme Court is IF the court decides to hear this case, which it does not need to do.
Because of the political climate, do not be surprised if the Supreme Court votes to NOT hear the case, which would leave the decision handed down by the Court of Appeals as a valid one and Trump would then have to turn over his returns.