By Harrison Arubu
New York – U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday launched a fresh legal bid to stop a New York district attorney from obtaining his tax returns.
The move came barely three weeks after the country’s Supreme Court tax ruled that the prosecutor could subpoena his tax returns and other financial records.
In a 7-2 ruling on July 9, the apex court said the president was not “absolutely immune” from state criminal investigation.
However, the court came short of granting the Manhattan District Attorney’s request to directly access the president’s financial records.
Rather, it threw the case back to a lower court where it said the president could try to fight the subpoenas.
Trump’s lawyers argue in the amended complaint filed in a Federal Court in Manhattan, that the subpoena was “wildly overbroad,” issued in “bad faith” and “amounts to harassment.”
They are asking the court to declare the subpoena “invalid and unenforceable”, and restrain the Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance, from “taking any action to enforce” it.
The president’s application is also asking the court to block Trump’s accounting firm from turning over information to the prosecutor.
Vance launched the probe after reports emerged that Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid adult film star, Stormy Daniels, $130,000 dollar (N49.5 million) for her silence about sleeping with the president.
The payment was allegedly made before Trump’s election in 2016, an allegation the president denies.
(NAN)
