Judge blocks Trump tax return subpoenas for 1 day
President Trump’s lawyers went head-to-head with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. in court Wednesday morning as the two parties continued their back-and-forth over whether Trump, as a sitting president, can have his tax returns subpoenaed.
U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero heard arguments from both sides in the wake of a lawsuit filed by the president’s attorneys on Sept. 19 to block a subpoena issued at the end of August seeking eight years of tax returns for Trump and the Trump Organization.
Marrero ultimately granted to block the subpoena for one more day.
“Go home, sober up, decompress, come together to accommodate concerns by both sides."
The lawsuit was intended to "address the significant constitutional issues at stake,” said Trump's attorney Jay Sekulow, at the time.
"Because the Mazars subpoena attempts to criminally investigate a sitting president, it is unconstitutional," the suit argued. "This court should declare it invalid and enjoin its enforcement until the president is no longer in office."
Meanwhile, attorneys for Vance, a Democrat, had asked Marrero to dismiss Trump’s suit, writing in court papers that, if accepted, it would mean presidents would not have to comply with grand jury subpoenas regarding their conduct out of office, and could also extend that immunity to associates and employees.
The Trump Organization complied with an earlier round of subpoenas seeking records related to its dealings with the president’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to separate federal campaign law violations.
But Trump’s attorneys got involved after the district attorney’s office subpoenaed Mazars USA, the accounting firm used by Trump and the Trump Organization on Aug. 29.
Federal prosecutors also filed related court papers late Tuesday asking that Marrero grant a “short stay of the subpoena’s enforcement” while they review Trump’s concerns to determine whether or not to intervene.
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"To the extent that enforcement of the subpoena may adversely affect federal interests of constitutional dimension, those effects could not be redressed after the fact," the prosecutors said in the court records.
Marrero on Wednesday granted federal prosecutors’ request, giving them until Monday to decide.
The Associated Press and Fox News’s Tamara Gitt contributed to this report.