The Justice Department filed a document on Wednesday taking President Trump’s side as his personal attorneys fight to prevent Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance from obtaining his tax returns.
The 16-page court filing — signed by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman — asks a judge to allot enough time to allow “considered deliberation” in the case.
The DOJ stops short of trying to convince the judge to toss the subpoena, issued to longtime Trump accountant Mazars USA LLP. Instead, the government asks the court to delay proceedings long enough to account for the “serious constitutional issues at stake.”
“It is both correct and important that the President’s challenge to the subpoena on account of his office be resolved in federal court rather than in state court,” the filing reads.
Vance issued a subpoena for eight years of Trump’s tax returns in August. Through personal attorneys, Trump sued last month to block the subpoena from being fulfilled.
The lawsuit is only the latest in a series of suits in which Trump has used personal attorneys to block various forms of congressional and state-level oversight.
The House Ways and Means Committee sued the Trump administration in July to force the Treasury Department to comply with a request for the President’s taxes. Separately, the House Intelligence and Financial Services Committees are embroiled in a lawsuit with Trump’s personal attorneys over a subpoena to two of his banks which likely includes his tax returns among the responsive records.
Read the filing here:
