WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a New York prosecutor can obtain President Donald Trump’s financial records but prevented – at least for now – Democratic-led House of Representatives committees from getting similar documents.
Both 7-2 rulings were authored by conservative Chief Justice John Roberts. One ruling means that the subpoena issued to Trump’s long-term accounting firm, Mazars LLP, for various financial records to be turned over to a grand jury as part of a criminal investigation can be enforced.
But the court sidestepped a major ruling on whether three House committees could also obtain Trump financial documents under subpoena, giving Trump at least a short-term win. Litigation will now continue in lower courts.
In both rulings, Roberts was joined by the court’s four liberals as well as Trump’s two conservative appointees to the court, Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.
The prosecutor and the House committees all issued subpoenas to third parties for the records, not the Republican president himself.
Trump went to Twitter shortly after the rulings to complain about the outcome, writing, “Courts in the past have given ‘broad deference’. BUT NOT ME!”
“This is a tremendous victory for our nation’s system of justice and its founding principle that no one – not even a president – is above the law,” said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, a Democrat, in relation to the ruling in his case.
The ruling in that case does not mean the documents will be handed over immediately as there is likely to be further litigation in lower courts, which means a final outcome could be delayed in both cases until after the Nov. 3 election in which Trump is seeking a second term in office.
