US President Donald Trump on Thursday urged the Supreme Court to prevent a prosecutor from getting his tax returns, arguing full immunity while he is in the White House. This case is considered a crucial test on the separation of powers, and if the highest court in the country - where conservative judges are now in the majority - seizes the case, its decision will be scrutinized with great attention. The former New York businessman is the first American president since Richard Nixon to refuse to make public his tax situation.
"Political motivations" denounced
Manhattan Attorney Cyrus Vance has applied for eight years (2011 to 2018) of Donald Trump's tax returns as part of an investigation into a payment made to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels to buy his silence over an alleged affair with the American president. Last week, a Federal Court of Appeal confirmed that the accounting firm Mazars, in charge of Donald Trump's tax affairs, had no reason not to deliver these documents to court.
Argument of the defenders of the president? The president enjoys immunity from prosecution, but also from any act of investigation. "For the first time in our country's history, a local or state prosecutor has launched a criminal investigation against the President of the United States and subjected him to a coercive investigation," wrote his lawyer, Jay Sekulow , quoted by US media. "Politically motivated applications such as these are the perfect illustration of why a president-in-office should enjoy full immunity from any criminal process," he added.
Other actions against Trump
At a hearing on the case on October 23, one of Donald Trump's lawyers had even said before the judges that the president would enjoy immunity if he decided to shoot someone in the street. A statement immediately challenged by jurists, and mocked by Democrats. In addition to the action of prosecutor Cyrus Vance, Donald Trump faces other actions by Democratic parliamentarians, both in Washington and New York, to compel him to file his statements.