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US President Donald Trump (in February at the White House)
Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP
A federal appeals court has ordered US President Donald Trump to submit his tax returns for the past eight years for a criminal investigation.
Trump had wanted to prevent Manhattan's District Attorney Cyrus Vance with his objection from checking his data and that of his companies.
In a unanimous decision, the three judges of the 2nd US Appeals Court in Manhattan now denied Trump's allegations that the district attorney's subpoena was too broad or badly issued to harass him.
But the court said that the execution of the subpoena could be suspended if Trump appeals to the US Supreme Court.
Trump has signaled that he would take this step should he lose.
The US President had argued that the subpoena for his personal and corporate tax returns was too broad and politically motivated a "fishing expedition" aimed at his business interests around the world and beyond the authority and jurisdiction of Vance.
Trump used "chronic" losses to avoid taxes
The Court of Appeal's decision comes after a September 28 report in the New York Times that Trump had only paid $ 750 in federal taxes in both 2016 and 2017 and no income tax for 10 of the last 15 years.
Trump attributed this to "chronic" losses that he had previously used to avoid taxes.
Trump rejected the report and tweeted that he had paid millions of dollars in taxes but was entitled to write-offs and tax credits.
Unlike his six immediate predecessors in the White House, Trump has long resisted the publication of his tax returns.
Vance wants to expand the investigation
The investigation into Vance began more than two years ago and focused on hush money payments made by former President's attorney Michael Cohen to pornstar Stormy Daniels and former playmate Karen McDougal prior to the 2016 election.
Both women claim to have had affairs with Trump.
He denies.
The district attorney had recently suggested expanding his investigations to include banking, tax and insurance fraud and the falsification of business documents.
Trump's attorneys argued that the investigation was still focused on the 2016 payments and that the demand for Trump's tax returns and other financial records went too far.
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