The United States Supreme Court on Thursday inflicted a setback on Donald Trump. The court ruled that a New York prosecutor was entitled to claim the President's accounting records, including his tax returns, but has blocked their transfer to Congress for the time being.
His two decisions, each taken by a majority of seven judges out of nine, should not, however, allow American citizens to know more about the finances of the republican billionaire before the presidential election of November 3, in which he stands.
Evidence
“The Supreme Court refers the file to a lower court, the proceedings continue. These are just political pursuits, "Donald Trump immediately tweeted. In a first decision, the Supreme Court clearly contradicted the president who, since taking office, has enjoyed absolute immunity as long as he is in the White House.
PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!
- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 9, 2020"No citizen, not even the president, can avoid having to produce documents in the event of a criminal investigation," wrote Chief Justice John Roberts for the majority. "The president does not enjoy absolute immunity from orders from state justice prosecutors," she added.
A New York prosecutor, who is investigating a possible violation of the laws on the financing of electoral campaigns, can therefore ask him for evidence, in this case a whole series of financial documents, relating to his cases between 2010 and 2018 .
"Not above the law"
"It is a huge victory for our justice system and its founding principle that no one - not even the president - is above the law," said Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan attorney who oversees this investigation. But the investigations are carried out by a grand jury, a collective of citizens drawn by lot who operate in the greatest secrecy and, in theory, nothing should be made public.
In a second judgment, the high court immediately blocked the transmission of comparable documents requested by Congress. She referred this request to the courts, asking the judges to take into account a whole series of criteria when assessing whether parliamentary orders were justified.
Unlike all his predecessors since the 1970s, Donald Trump, who made his fortune a campaign argument, refuses to publish his tax returns. Its lack of transparency feeds speculations on the extent of its wealth or on potential conflicts of interest.
Film Actress X
To try to find out more, three committees of the House of Representatives, in the hands of the Democrats, had asked in 2019 the cabinet Mazars, but also the banks Deutsche Bank and Capital One a whole series of financial documents relating to the affairs of Donald Trump between 2010 and 2018, but also on those of his relatives, including his children.
At the same time, Manhattan prosecutor Cyrus Vance, a Democrat, asked the accounting firm Mazars to provide him with Donald Trump's financial records for the same period to shed light on a payment made during the 2016 campaign to the pornographic actress. Stormy Daniels.
This payment could have been used to buy the silence of the young woman on a supposed connection with the billionaire, in violation of the laws of financing of the electoral campaigns in force in the State.
During the proceedings, the president's lawyers had estimated that he could not be prosecuted during his presidency, going so far as to say that he could shoot someone in the street without being immediately worried.
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