A federal judge on Thursday dismissed Donald Trump's second attempt to block the Manhattan District Attorney from obtaining eight years of both his personal and corporate tax returns and other relevant financial records.
The ruling came a little over a month after a decisive 7-2 Supreme Court ruling that Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance had the legal authority to pursue Trump's tax returns, though the high court also stipulated Trump could challenge aspects of the subpoena in lower court.
Importantly, U.S. Judge Victor Marrero dismissed Trump's legal challenge with prejudice, signaling he has made a final determination on the merits of the case and forbidding Trump from filing another lawsuit on the same grounds. Manhattan prosecutors have argued that Trump's lawyers are simply trying to run out the clock on the statute of limitations. Trump’s lawyers plan to appeal the ruling, making the next stop for the case the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
In recent weeks, Vance's investigation has come into clearer view as a wide-ranging probe into possible financial fraud committed by both Trump and his family business, Trump Org. Vance is seeking to review filings from Trump’s accounting firm Mazars USA for evidence of “potentially improper financial transactions by a variety of individuals and entities over a period of years," according to a court filing. During congressional testimony last year, Trump's former lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen detailed financial schemes Trump used to both inflate and deflate his wealth for banking and insurance purposes.
Vance has also subpoenaed and obtained financial records from Trump’s go-to lender since the ‘90s, Deutsche Bank, which lent him and his family business more than $2 billion over the last couple decades. The bank reportedly complied with the subpoena, providing detailed financial information about Trump over a series of months last year.
