Let the whining begin

Oh, he will, Mark.  He will.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero threw out President Donald Trump’s challenge to a subpoena seeking his tax returns, a decision that all but guarantees a New York grand jury access to these documents in the near future. Trump will fight Thursday’s order, but he has run out of options: The Supreme Court already rejected his sweeping claims on immunity, then gave Marrero a road map that led ineluctably to a decision against the president. And soon, at long last, New York prosecutors will obtain the tax returns that he has fought so long to conceal.

  Slate

Let the leaks begin.

New York County District Attorney Cy Vance reportedly began investigating Trump in 2018 for the illegal hush money payments that Michael Cohen made on his behalf. Since then, prosecutors have indicated that they are also looking into bank and insurance fraud by Trump and his companies. In 2019, a New York grand jury subpoenaed Mazars, Trump’s shadowy accounting firm, for eight years of financial records from both Trump and his businesses, including tax returns. The president, aided by the Department of Justice, intervened to quash the subpoena. Trump’s lawyers argued that sitting presidents are absolutely immune from state criminal subpoenas. Alternatively, they insisted that prosecutors should have to show a “heightened need” when subpoenaing the president, demonstrating that their action is a “last resort” to obtain information “not available from any other source.”

Chief Justice John Roberts’ opinion for SCOTUS, issued in July, rejected both these arguments. [...] However, Roberts noted, a president may challenge a subpoena that is issued in bad faith if he can show it was designed to harass him. He can also defeat a subpoena by showing that it will impede his constitutional duties. The chief justice then sent the case back down to the lower courts, giving Trump an opportunity to raise these final objections.

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[T]he chief justice surely knew that none of those objections had any merit in this case.

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The president did not establish that turning over his tax returns would prevent him exercising his executive powers. He barely even tried—perhaps because a president who spends so many days tweeting his grievances cannot plausibly insist that an otherwise valid subpoena would somehow hinder his ability to lead the nation.

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Trump’s inevitable appeal may help him run down the clock a bit longer: Marrero’s ruling will probably remain on hold while the federal appeals court—then, once again, the Supreme Court—review his conclusions.

Jesus Christ. How many times can he run this through the Supreme Court?

Trump’s inevitable appeal may help him run down the clock a bit longer: Marrero’s ruling will probably remain on hold while the federal appeals court—then, once again, the Supreme Court—review his conclusions.But Roberts is clearly done with this case and is unlikely to keep the subpoena on ice. That is, to put it mildly, bad news for the president. Less than one month before some Americans begin voting, a New York grand jury is poised to see documents that may prove Trump to be the head of a criminal enterprise.

Something we all know is true already.