(Isaac Brekken/Getty)
Trump has lost his appeal to shield his tax returns from a criminal investigation started by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance.
Again.
This time in front of the Second Circuit.
The appeal is from U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero’s ruling that Trump’s argument was: “repugnant to the nation’s governmental structure and constitutional values.” This is the case where Trump lawyer William Consovoy argued in an open appellate hearing that Trump could in fact shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not be investigated by authorities.
Apparently, that argument was a dud. From Law.com:
The Second Circuit judges noted that their ruling is not a blanket determination of the extent of presidential immunity.
“We have no occasion to decide today the precise contours and limitations of presidential immunity from prosecution, and we express no opinion on the applicability of any such immunity under circumstances not presented here,” the judges wrote.
“Instead, after reviewing historical and legal precedent, we conclude only that presidential immunity does not bar the enforcement of a state grand jury subpoena directing a third party to produce non‐privileged material, even when the subject matter under investigation pertains to the President.”
We’re still waiting for the Second Circuit to post it’s full decision, and will put it up here when they do.
The next steps for Trump will, inevitably, be the Supreme Court appeal. Trump has faced adverse rulings from the D.C. Circuit and the Second Circuit. The most non-political thing the Supreme Court could do would be to let those rulings stand — they are neither controversial nor contradictory — and deny cert on Trump’s appeals.
Instead, I expect the four arch-conservatives on the Supreme Court will take the case and see if they can convince John Roberts to bail out the Republican party, again.
Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.