A federal judge in New York City dismissed President Donald Trump‘s second attempt to bar the release of his tax returns and other financial records in a significant victory for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance on Thursday morning.
Southern District of New York (SDNY) Judge Victor Marrero issued a lengthy 103-page decision and order which traces the tax returns case from its inception to its eventual and wholesale dismissal.
The court’s clerk offered a more tidy disposition:
It is hereby ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED: That for the reasons stated in the Court’s Decision and Order dated August 20, 2020, the motion filed by defendant Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., in his official capacity as the District Attorney of the County of New York, to dismiss the Second Amended Complaint of plaintiff Donald J. Trump, is GRANTED, and the Second Amended Complaint is dismissed with prejudice. The motion filed by plaintiff Donald J. Trump for discovery is DENIED as moot; accordingly, this case is closed.
Vance initially subpoenaed the 45th president’s accounting firm, Mazars USA LLP, in late 2019. Trump intervened to block those subpoenas claiming, as Marrero notes, “absolute immunity from criminal process while in office.” That tack was summarily rejected by the SDNY. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court similarly rejected Trump’s “assertions of a temporary absolute immunity from criminal process.”…
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