Trump's Lawsuit To Block Tax Return Release Tossed By Judge

NEW YORK — Manhattan's top prosecutor can continue his efforts to obtain President Donald Trump's tax returns, a federal judge ruled Monday as he called Trump's legal arguments "repugnant" to the U.S. Constitution.

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero dismissed the president's lawsuit aiming to block Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. from enforcing a subpoena to get eight years of Trump's tax returns from his accounting firm, Mazars USA.

But a federal appeals court quickly put the subpoena on hold once again after the president's attorneys signaled their intent to fight the decision.

The Democratic D.A.’s subpoena reportedly was part of a probe into hush money paid to the porn star Stormy Daniels during Trump's 2016 campaign. The Republican president's lawyers argued his office gave him immunity to such criminal investigations — a claim Marrero said has no basis in the Constitution or past court rulings.

"This Court cannot endorse such a categorical and limitless assertion of presidential immunity from judicial process as being countenanced by the nation's constitutional plan," Marrero, whom President Bill Clinton appointed to the federal bench, wrote in his 75-page decision.

Trump's lawyers immediately filed papers to appeal the ruling and asked the U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan to put a stay on Vance's subpoena. The court obliged Monday morning because "of the unique issues raised by this appeal."

Vance's office declined to comment on Marrero's decision. Trump lawyer Alan Futerfas could not immediately be reached for comment.

A 46-year-old U.S. Department of Justice opinion insulates sitting presidents from criminal indictment and prosecution because it would undermine the commander-in-chief's ability to fulfill his or her responsibilities under the Constitution.

But Trump's lawyers sought to greatly expand those protections in fighting Vance's quest for the president's tax returns. The subpoena is reportedly part of a probe into whether money paid to Daniels to keep her quiet about her alleged affair with Trump violated state law.

Trump's attorneys claimed that sitting presidents have "absolute immunity from criminal process of any kind" related to any crimes they may have committed before or during their time in office, according to Marrero's decision.

The Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office supported Trump's request for a court order blocking Vance from enforcing the subpoena. But Vance's office said the president was making a meritless argument to stop a third party from releasing information about him.

Marrero sided with the D.A. finding that Trump's "extraordinary" and "far-reaching" claim would wrongly prevent prosecutors from holding the president or his associates accountable for breaking the law.

"Bared to its core, the proposition the President advances reduces to the very notion that the Founders rejected at the inception of the Republic, and that the Supreme Court has since unequivocally repudiated: that a constitutional domain exists in this country in which not only the President, but, derivatively, relatives and persons and business entities associated with him in potentially unlawful private activities, are in fact above the law," Marrero wrote.

The court fight comes amid efforts by Democrats in Congress to obtain Trump's tax returns, which he has refused to release in a break with longstanding tradition for presidential candidates.

New York State lawmakers passed a law in May that would allow any of three congressional committees to obtain Trump's state returns; the president reportedly is fighting the law in court.

Vance's ongoing probe could spell further legal trouble for Trump, who is facing impeachment following revelations he pressed Ukraine's president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.

Michael Cohen, Trump's longtime attorney and fixer, said he paid off Daniels at the president's direction when he pleaded guilty last year to campaign-finance and tax crimes.

Vance has also issued a subpoena to the Trump Organization, the president's real estate company where Cohen worked for years, court records show.