Former president Donald Trump issued a long and fiery statement in response to the Supreme Court siding with New York prosecutors on the issue of his financial documents.
Attorneys for the president were seeking to block a lower court order calling on his accounting firm to turn over his documents to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance's office. On Monday, the highest court in the land rejected that request without comment.
The former president fired off a statement attacking Democrats but predicting that he would win nonetheless.
"This investigation is a continuation of the greatest political Witch Hunt in the history of our Country, whether it was the never ending $32 million Mueller hoax, which already investigated everything that could possible be investigation, 'Russia Russia Russia,' where there was a finding of 'No Collusion,' or two ridiculous 'Crazy Nancy' inspired impeachment attempts where I was found NOT GUILTY. It just never ends!" the president said in his statement.
"So now, for more than two years, New York City has been looking at almost every transaction I've ever done, including seeking tax returns which were done by among the biggest and most prestigious law and accounting firms in the U.S. The Tea Party was treated far better by the IRS than Donald Trump. The Supreme Court never should have let this 'fishing expedition' happen, but they did. This is something which has never happened to a President before, it is all Democrat-inspired in a totally Democrat location, New York City and State, completely controlled and dominated by a heavily reported enemy of mine, Governor Andrew Cuomo," he continued.
"These are attacks by Democrats willing to do anything to stop the almost 75 million people (the most votes, by far, ever gotten by a sitting president) who voted for me in the election — an election which many people, and experts, feel that I won. I agree!" Trump claimed.
"The new phenomenon of 'headhunting' prosecutors and AGs — who try to take down their political opponents using the law as a weapon — is a threat to the very foundation of our liberty. That's what is done in third world countries. Even worse are those who run for prosecutorial or attorney general offices in far-left states and jurisdictions pledging to take out a political opponent. That's fascism, not justice — and that is exactly what they are trying to do with respect to me, except that the people of our Country won't stand for it," he continued.
"In the meantime, murders and violent crime are up in New York City by record numbers, and nothing is done about it. Our elected officials don't care. All they focus on is the persecution of President Donald J. Trump," he concluded. "I will fight on, just as I have, for the last five years (even before I was successfully elected), despite all of the election crimes that were committed against me. We will win!"
The order would not include the release of the financial documents to the public.
Supreme Court denies Trump's request to shield his tax recordswww.youtube.com
The Supreme Court on Monday ordered former President Donald Trump to have his accountants release his financial records to prosecutors in New York, ending a prolonged legal battle in which Trump sought to shield his tax documents from investigators.
BREAKING: After 4 months of inaction, SCOTUS in a one-sentence unsigned order declines Trump's request to further p… https://t.co/cfYIEkzFxO— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog)1614004565.0
Trump's lawyers, on Oct. 7, requested that the high court block a lower court decision ordering Mazars USA, the accounting firm employed by the former president, to answer a subpoena from Manhattan district attorney Cyrus R. Vance's office and turn over Trump's tax documents. The Supreme Court's order, which was unsigned and issued without comment, rejected that request.
Trump's tax returns will be turned over under grand jury secrecy rules and will not be released publicly.
Vance, a Democrat, sought eight years of Trump's financial records as part of an inquiry into allegations that Trump made hush-money payments to two women who say they had affairs with him before he became president. Court filings reported by the New York Times last December suggested Trump is also under investigation for potential tax fraud.
Vance issued a three-word statement in response to the court's order: "The work continues."
The decision marks the end of a lengthy legal battle in which Trump sought to keep his tax records confidential. Trump was the only recent U.S. president to refuse to release his tax returns to the public. He repeatedly asserted that he was under "audit" by the Internal Revenue Service and has long promised to release his financial records once the audit was complete.
In August 2019, Vance issued a subpoena for Trump's personal and corporate tax returns from 2011 to 2018. Trump claimed that as the sitting president, he was immune to state criminal investigations, but the Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision rejected that argument and knocked the case back to lower courts.
Trump's lawyers then argued that the subpoena was politically motivated and amounted to harassment of the president, calling it a "fishing expedition" and demanding that the subpoena request be rejected. But the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan denied Trump's request.
"We hold that none of the President's allegations, taken together or separately, are sufficient to raise a plausible inference that the subpoena was issued 'out of malice or an intent to harass,'" the appeals court said.
In a separate court filing, House Democrats sought to obtain Trump's tax records, but the Supreme Court last July refused to grant their request and sent the case back to the lower courts for review. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said last August that if Joe Biden won the 2020 election, "the world will see what the president has been hiding all of this time."
Neither President Joe Biden or his newly confirmed Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen have yet indicated whether they will release Trump's taxes publicly.
An MSNBC contributor on Thursday called for a "bipartisan commission" to vet presidential candidates and prevent someone like President Donald Trump from winning the White House ever again.
NBC News National Security Contributor Frank Figliuzzi, the former assistant director of the FBI, said Trump's tax returns as reported by the New York Times show he is "the most vulnerable president in our history" to compromise by foreign governments and is a national security threat. He believes the media and the 60 million people who voted for Trump in 2016 failed to properly vet him before he became president and the remedy is to have a bipartisan committee vet presidential candidates instead of the American people.
"He is the most vulnerable president in our history in terms of compromise and potential exposure to those who want to help him dig out of his financial pit in return for a price," Figliuzzi said of Trump in a segment discussing the president's tax returns.
"So there's too many gaps in the tax returns. There's too many questions. Why is this president paying more to foreign nations in taxes than he is to the United States? How does he cover his debt? Who's doing that for him? What's the Deutsche Bank connection? Why are there so many golf courses losing so much money and why the continued purchase of those properties?"
But President Trump is not "paying more to foreign nations in taxes than he is to the United States."
Berkeley professor Robert Reich recently made a similar claim, suggesting that the New York Times report on Trump's taxes shows he only paid $750 in federal taxes in 2017 but nearly $300,000 in taxes to foreign governments that same year.
In 2017, Trump paid $750 in federal taxes, but paid—$15,598 in Panama—$145,400 in India—$156,824 in the Philip… https://t.co/G0HWTsK4i5— Robert Reich (@Robert Reich)1601246734.0
The New York Times report does not show that. The Times, in fact, reported that Trump paid the U.S. Treasury $1 million in 2016 and $4.2 million for income taxes that he might owe in 2017. This does not account for property taxes, payroll taxes, real estate taxes, or any other non-income taxes that Trump and his businesses paid to the United States in the years the New York Times reported.
On the basis of the unproven claim that Trump's finances have made him vulnerable to foreign governments and a national security threat, Figluzzi suggested radical electoral reform is needed to make sure a candidate like Trump is never elected again.
"We've got to have a national discussion about how we vet a presidential candidate," Figliuzzi said. "We screwed this up. Whether it's the media not digging deeply enough, whether it's a time to have a discussion about a bipartisan committee that demands tax returns, make that a requirement, or exposes financial pictures for candidates."
"We got this wrong and this can't happen again," he concluded.
MSNBC’s @FrankFigliuzzi1 proposes creating a "bipartisan commission" to vet presidential candidates to prevent anot… https://t.co/BS3englCGA— Tom Elliott (@Tom Elliott)1601560652.0
Against the backdrop of Trump prosecutions and the collapse of Hunter Biden’s plea deal, Littlejohn’s plea agreement raises questions about the politicization of justice.
Littlejohn stole decades of private tax information, only to be charged with the minimum possible, and then made a plea deal for even less.
www.theblaze.com
freebeacon.com