A Manhattan federal appeals court heard arguments Tuesday morning over President Trump’s year-long bid to delay enforcement of a criminal subpoena for his financial records, the latest episode in the President’s move to delay any and all probes into his business history.
Carey Dunne, an attorney representing Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, reiterated that the state probe goes beyond the Stormy Daniels hush money scandal from which it began.
“No facts in the complaint support that inference,” Dunne said, referring to statements from President Trump’s attorneys that the investigation is limited to the hush money scandal.
The arguments come after the Supreme Court upheld the same subpoena in July, striking down Trump’s arguments that his status as President rendered him immune from criminal investigation while sending the case back to the district court level for further review.
The District Court then dismissed a second effort by the President to throw out the subpoena, leaving the appeals court on Tuesday to argue over the initial question of whether to issue a stay on the subpoena’s enforcement pending further argument.
William Consovoy, an attorney for President Trump, reiterated Tuesday that he would take any loss in the case to the Supreme Court for further review.
President Trump’s all-out strategy of fighting every investigation — civil, criminal, or congressional — that targeted his finances has been largely successful at keeping his tax returns and other information out of public view and away from any form of scrutiny during his term in office.
Dunne argued at the hearing that the court could compel Trump to disclose the information to the grand jury, with the proviso that the grand jurors or prosecutor team be replaced were the Supreme Court to invalidate the subpoena.
But Consovoy contended that there was no way to “unring the bell,” and that any form of disclosure at all was “meaningful harm.”
The court said that it would issue a ruling on the stay by the end of the day on Tuesday.
