New step in the legal battle initiated by Donald Trump to prevent a New York prosecutor from accessing his tax returns: his lawyers asked the US Supreme Court on Tuesday, October 13 to block the communication of these documents, on the grounds that it would cause "
irreparable harm
" to the president.
Read also: Supreme Court of the United States: threats on a quick green light
This new appeal was expected, since the Federal Court of Appeal in Manhattan had, last Wednesday, dismissed the American president, who has refused for months that his accounting firm, Mazars, provides the eight years of tax returns (2011- 2018) claimed by prosecutor Cyrus Vance.
The appeal filed Tuesday is an action in summary, the president's lawyers asking for an "
urgent
"
blocking
, pending an appeal on the merits before the Supreme Court they say they are preparing.
This case, a real judicial saga, had already been the subject of a first decision of the Supreme Court in July, which had ruled that the New York prosecutor, a Democrat, was entitled to claim the accounting records of the Republican president.
But Donald Trump's lawyers had counterattacked, deeming the request "
too broad
" in view of the prosecutor's investigation.
Tuesday, in their appeal to the Supreme Court, lawyers Jay Sekulow and William Consovoy say that communicating these statements now would cause "
irreparable harm to the president
" because "
we can never return to the status quo once their confidentiality is destroyed
."
Even if these documents are intended for a “
grand jury
” kept in secrecy, “
the prosecutor has legal means to make these documents public
”, even though “
these statements have long generated intense political interest
”, underline these lawyers.
Read also: United States: Trump would not have paid federal taxes for ten years
Interest all the stronger as the presidential election of November 3 approaches.
The
New York Times
began publishing a large-scale investigation based on the president's tax documents in late September: Early reports show that the president, despite being a billionaire, only paid $ 750 in federal taxes in 2016 and 2017, respectively. The daily also assured that Donald Trump had not paid any federal tax in 10 of the 15 previous years.
The president called these conclusions "
bogus information
" and assured to have paid "
millions of dollars
" in taxes.
Unlike his predecessors since the 1970s, Donald Trump has always refused to publish his tax returns, fueling speculation about the size of his fortune or potential conflicts of interest.