In July, the state of New York passed the New York TRUST Act, allowing the release of state tax returns from any elected official, including Donald Trump. On Monday, the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. subpoenaed eight years’ worth of Trump’s returns. Then, on Thursday, Trump did what he always does in response to such requests: He filed suit against the DA.
As The New York Times reports, Vance sought the returns as part of an investigation into Trump’s payment of hush money to Stormy Daniels in advance of the 2016 election. How Trump reported those payments on his taxes may show that he violated both state and federal tax regulations, as well as campaign finance law.
Trump’s suit in response doesn’t deal with the tax issue directly. Instead, it makes an astoundingly broad claim. Taking a position that the Times kindly refers to as “untested,” Trump’s legal team is arguing that the Constitution makes a sitting executive immune to all criminal inquiries. In other words, Trump is arguing that any crimes he committed, whether they happened before or after his election, are put on hold until after he leaves office. He is not “subject to criminal process, for conduct of any kind, while he is serving,” in the words of his attorneys.
This extreme view of executive immunity not only stands in stark contrast with past practice, but it’s also completely counter to the Department of Justice rules that Trump counted on to prevent his indictment. Those rules explicitly permit the investigation of criminal activities, as Robert Mueller pointed out in his testimony before Congress.
Trump’s actions in New York expand the scope of the case to the point where it is all but certain to get an express trip to the Supreme Court. Which will, hopefully, provide at least a little much-needed clarity about issues that have remained fuzzy to this point.
And whatever crime Trump is hiding in his taxes … it must be a whopper.