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The Supreme Court just shut the door on seeing Trump's taxes before the election

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Legally, Thursday was a very bad day for Donald Trump — as the Supreme Court ruled against his efforts to block the turning-over of his financial documents to a New York grand jury, which could lead to major problems for him once he leaves office.
If that seems counterintuitive, it’s largely because of the complicated nature of the two cases that the court ruled on Thursday. The cases were similar, but not the same. And they carried differing stakes for Trump.
In the New York case — Trump v. Vance — the subpoena of the President’s tax returns was specifically regarding an ongoing grand jury investigation looking into whether Trump or the Trump Organization violated state laws in connection with hush money payments made to two women (Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels) during the run-up to the 2016 election. Both women alleged that Trump had conducted extramarital affairs with them. The investigation has also looked into whether business records filed with the state were falsified and if any tax laws were violated, CNN has reported. The Court ruled that Trump was not covered by presidential immunity, and therefore, had to turn over the subpoenaed documents — although they remanded the case, meaning that the turn-over won’t happen immediately. And even if Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance does eventually get the tax records, which now seems very likely, it will be in the context of a grand jury investigation. And it’s a very big no-no to leak grand jury evidence.
In the Congress case — Trump v. Mazars — the issue was whether members of Congress had the right to see Trump’s taxes and financial documents in pursuit of an investigation into whether conflict-of-interest and disclosure laws needed to be amended or updated. Had the Court ruled in favor of Congress, the details of Trump’s financial history would have definitely been made public — since Congress leaking things is, um, a practice as old as time itself.

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