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Trump Rejected as Supreme Court Lets Prosecutor Get Taxes
Posted
February 22, 2021
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0:49Now PlayingThe U.S. Supreme Court rejected a bid by Donald Trump to keep eight years of his tax returns and other financial records out of the hands of a Manhattan prosecutor conducting a criminal investigation into the former president and his company, the Trump Organization Inc.
The justices without explanation or any published dissent refused to block a subpoena to Trump’s accounting firm by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., whose investigation looms as one of the biggest legal threats to Trump. In August, prosecutors suggested in court papers they may be looking into tax fraud, insurance fraud, and falsification of business records charges.
The high court had deferred acting in the case for four months, waiting until Trump again became a private citizen to take a step that could boost a probe that initially focused on hush-money payments to adult-film star Stormy Daniels and another woman who claimed to have sexual relationships with Trump years before he became president. Vance’s investigators have already gotten hold of some of the tax records from other sources, according to people familiar with the matter.
But with Monday’s order, Manhattan prosecutors can now dive into a trove of Trump’s tax records. This wealth of new material will allow investigators to compare statements made by the Trump Organization to the Internal Revenue Service with claims made to banks, insurers and other parties.
“Now they have the evidence that the accounting firm and the corporation have,” said John Moscow, a former chief prosecutor for serious economic crimes at the Manhattan district attorney’s office. “At this point, Trump’s position has to be that he didn’t do anything wrong, because if he did, they’d find it.”
Vance has been beefing up his team in anticipation of receiving Trump’s tax records. Late last year, the district attorney hired FTI Consulting, a leading forensic accounting firm, to assist in the investigation. Earlier this month, Mark Pomerantz, a former federal prosecutor, came aboard as a special assistant district attorney, according to Vance’s spokesman, Danny Frost.
As head of the criminal division of the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office from 1997 to 1999, Pomerantz oversaw complex fraud and organized crime prosecutions, including that of organized crime boss John Gotti Jr. He’s more recently been a top corporate defense lawyer at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, from which he is taking a leave of absence to work with Vance.
Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA, isn’t contesting the subpoena. Mazars declined to comment on the Trump tax records Monday, but said it was “committed to fulfilling” its professional and legal obligations.
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