An appeals court based in New York granted a short lived relief to President Donald Trump after a federal judge ordered both Trump and accountant to hand over eight years of tax return information.
The federal judge issued a subpoena for Trumps tax return information in hopes the Manhattan District Attorney could take a closer look into allegations stemming from the 2016 Election.
Shortly after receiving the subpoena, Trumps lawyer filed an emergency motion to request a reversal of the ruling.
Trump and his accounting firm were facing a Monday deadline but The Second Circuit Court of Appeals granted the reversal of the ruling.
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance’s office is searching previous tax returns in connection to an investigation involving Michael Cohen, Trumps former lawyer, who arranged payments to porn star, Stormy Daniels, shortly before Election day 2016.
District Court Judge Victor Marrero completely disregarded the argument Trumps lawyer claims Trump is immune from prosecution while president. Judge Marrero obliterates Trumps personal attorney’s argument that Trump as current president should not endure same methods of investigation as civilians. “This court cannot endorse such a categorial and limitless assertion of presidential immunity from judicial press.” Marrero stated in his ruling. 
The judge criticized Trumps lawyers for arguing that presidents are immune from wheels of justice.
Judge Marrero’s ruling is what initiated the emergency appeal Monday.
District Attorney Cy Vance’s office is thoroughly searching Stormy Daniel payoff and seeking a campaign financial violation that will implicate President Trump. The same investigation is transpiring within the payments from American Media Inc. to Playboy model, Karen McDougal in 2016 campaign. Both ladies alleged affairs w/ Trump and he has since denied.
But Justice Department lawyers asked the judge to put a halt to the proceedings so ‘weighty constitutional issues’ could be decided. Marrero quickly decided them.
Trump also asked Marrero to oversee the case, removing it from the state court where a grand jury pushed toward Vance’s subpoena.
He has withheld his tax returns, claiming for years that they are under a lengthy IRS audit.The House Ways and Means of Committee has been trying to obtain Trump’s tax returns on a separate track, under a law that allows the heads of tax-writing committees to obtain return information.
The Treasury Department, however, has resisted turning over the information. Following subpoenas of both the Trump Organization and Mazars, Trump’s lawyers filed an injunction seeking the judge to stop the subpoenas. In a technical note that could play out during the appeals process, the judge stated that ‘the Court is not certain that attorneys privately retained by the person who is President can bring suit on behalf of the United States’ and that the Justice Department has filed a ‘Statement of Interest’ rather than formally intervening on behalf of the President in connection with official presidential business implicating United States interests. The president’s lawyers argued that the District Attorney may not be acting in good faith – and noted that it matches subpoenas issued by the Democratic-run Ways and Means Committee. 
The judge also cited internal Justice Department memos that state that a president cannot be indicted while in office. Those members were a key component of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s legal reasoning. He decided in his report not to decide whether or not the president obstructed justice.The judge writes that the theory has ‘gained a certain amount of axiomatic acceptance’ as if it were written on ‘constitutional tablets so-etched by the Supreme Court.’But the court considers such ‘popular currency’ and the legal support that finds it to be ‘not warranted.’ If a president invokes his claimed ‘absolute immunity’ in a case involving other people, it could potentially allow the ‘guilty to go free.’
