Appeals court hands devastating blow to Donald Trump over tax returns and criminal indictment
We were all expecting this ruling – we just weren’t expecting it to arrive so quickly. Federal courts tend to move glacially slow in general. But just weeks after a judge ruled that accounting firm Mazars must turn over Donald Trump’s tax returns to a New York Grand jury, the U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld the ruling. This is ugly for Trump on two levels.
First, this means the grand jury is going to get Donald Trump’s tax returns. He’ll likely appeal to the Supreme Court – but they may not even take up the case. Even if they do, it’s difficult to imagine someone like John Roberts ruling in Trump’s favor on a matter like this, and Brett Kavanaugh doesn’t get to vote twice. Moreover, considering how thoroughly the appeals court fast tracked the case, the Supreme Court process shouldn’t take long either. But that’s only half of Trump’s problem here.
Trump’s second problem is that the appeals court just rejected his legal argument that his taxes shouldn’t be turned over because a sitting president is immune from being criminally investigated. This ruling helps further establish the precedent that the DOJ memo about not indicting a sitting president is invalid. This makes it easier for the New York grand to go ahead and indict Trump on state charges while he’s still in office. As a reminder, state charges can’t be pardoned by any current or future president.
So now, not only is Donald Trump just one more failed appeal away from helplessly watching his accounting firm give his tax returns to the grand jury that’s in the process of indicting him, that indictment is going to carry more legal weight if it comes down while he’s still in office. This is the worst case scenario for Trump, and he knows it.
