Maraaz 
Donald Trump had long claimed immunity. The Supreme Court now wrongly ruled – and ordered him to hand over his secret tax files to the judiciary. What does the US President have to hide?
The day started badly for Donald Trump. In the morning, workers set out to paint a massive yellow lettering on Fifth Avenue, right in front of the Trump Tower: “BLACK LIVES MATTER”. The provocation, ordered by Mayor Bill de Blasio, angered the president: “Black Lives Matter”, he raged, was a “symbol of hatred”.
Trump’s mood may not have improved much as a result. Hours later, he also suffered a serious blow in the ongoing dispute over his secret tax documents: The Supreme Court, the US Supreme Court, denounced him to hand over the explosive files – in which critics suspect suspicious cash flows – to the New York judiciary. The only bright spot from Trump’s point of view: the numbers should not be released to the public until after the November election.
After that at the latest it could become uncomfortable for Trump. “Nobody is above the law,” said the court. “Of course, this principle also applies to a president.”
The 68-page verdict on presidential power – and impotence – was the end of a turbulent session, distorted by the corona crisis, in which the Supreme Court unexpectedly often decided against Trump and his very frank interpretation of his powers. Once again, Trump’s conservative judges Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh joined the liberal wing.
In a parallel ruling, however, the court slowed down the U.S. Democrats, who are looking for similar insight into Trump’s finances through Congress: They now have to further rank with Trump in the lower instances. Nancy Pelosi, the spokeswoman for the House of Representatives, was nevertheless confident: “Not good news for the President.”
Trump claimed immunity – wrongly
For years, Trump had refused to issue his tax returns. With changing reasons: sometimes he called it “too complex”, sometimes he claimed to be blocked by an audit, sometimes he denied that nobody was interested. But when the New York judiciary bored out, he appealed to presidential “immunity”.
Trump acknowledged this as usual with a long Twitter tirade. “All of this is a politically motivated persecution,” he said. In the past, the courts had given a president “broad” immunity. “Just not me!” And then his favorite slogan: “Political witch hunt!”
Specifically, it is a case by the New York prosecutor Cyrus Vance. The focus is on illegal hush money that Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels in the 2016 election campaign, a suspected lover of Trump. That’s why Cohen was behind bars. Vance continues to determine to what extent Trump himself was involved and whether something should be disguised. To do this, he requested private and business tax returns from eight years.
Trump’s lawyers contested that the US judiciary should not, in principle, investigate an incumbent president. Vance, on the other hand, relied on an older judgment by the Supreme Court: in 1974, in the Watergate scandal, he had rejected a similar argument by the then President Richard Nixon. 46 years later, the court has now confirmed this principle.
“So sehr es sich das auch wünscht, Präsident Trump ist kein König”, sagte Chuck Schumer, der Chef der US-Demokraten im Senat.
Tax Tricks and “Financial Deception”
The Supreme Court saw it that way too. “No citizen, not even the president, is categorically above everyone’s duty to provide evidence if criminal investigations so require,” presiding judge John Roberts wrote. He only approved Trump to contest the extent of the file request.
The White House also plans to do this just to delay the process. “We will raise further constitutional and legal objections in the lower instances,” announced Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow. However, experts doubt that Trump will get away with it.
For Trump, who likes to portray himself as a successful billionaire, the tax returns could be extremely embarrassing – and at worst, could have criminal consequences. This has already been shown in targeted media leaks that have caused Trump’s carefully curated image to burst.
In 2018, the New York Times revealed in an synopsis that Trump’s alleged self-made fortune was based on tax tricks, “financial deception”, and his father’s million-dollar legacy. The newspaper relied on documents she received from Trump’s niece Mary Trump, as stated in her new book about the president.
Billions in Losses
Last year the Times then reported that Trump had made more than $ 1 billion in losses from 1985 to 1994 when he marked the big real estate shark and published his bible of success, The Art of the Deal.
Either way, when Trump hands the information over to the prosecutor, it goes to a grand jury, a secret jury that decides whether the case will continue. The contents of the files would not be known until an indictment is filed, unless this material is also launched to the media.
Trump can also play for a while in a second trial: The court initially blocked three Congress committees’ demands for his finances. Lower instances must now judge this.
This is about business files from Trump’s accounting firm Mazars and Deutsche Bank, then Trump’s house bank. The committees are also reviewing payments to Stormy Daniels, allegations of money laundering with Russia, and whether Trump falsified his property information to get better loans. The boards want information from seven Trump companies – as well as the private documents of his children Donald Junior, Eric and Ivanka.
The assumption that Trump has something to hide is not too far-fetched. At the end of June, as every year, he should have disclosed his current finances as president. So far, this has not happened. The White House’s excuse: he was far too busy with the corona crisis for this.
