Supreme Court clears way for Manhattan prosecutors to subpoena Trump's taxes

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an effort by former President Trump's lawyers to block Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance from enforcing a subpoena for eight years of his personal and financial tax returns.

Why it matters: It was the last legal hurdle in the former president's long-running battle to shield his tax returns from prosecutors — and the second time the Supreme Court has dealt Trump a defeat in the case.

The big picture: Vance first subpoenaed Trump's accounting firm Mazars USA in 2019 as part of a criminal investigation into the Trump Organization, which began as a probe into hush-money payments made by Trump's former fixer Michael Cohen during the 2016 election.

• The New York Times reports that the investigation has intensified in recent months and that prosecutors are now examining potential tax and bank-related fraud.
• Trump has denied any wrongdoing, attacking the investigation by Vance as a political "witch hunt."

Between the lines: Trump had previously asserted that he had "absolute immunity" from criminal investigation as president and that Vance had no legal authority to subpoena records from his banks and accounting firms.

• The Supreme Court rejected that sweeping claim in July 2020, but sent the case back down to lower courts to allow Trump's lawyers to challenge the subpoena for other reasons.
• Trump's lawyers then claimed that Vance's subpoena was overbroad and amounted to political harassment — an argument that was rejected by an appeals court in October and brought back to the Supreme Court for the second time.

What they're saying: "The work continues," Vance tweeted Monday morning, minutes after the Supreme Court's decision to deny Trump's request for a stay.

The other side: Trump issued a lengthy statement hours later in which he railed against the Supreme Court and Vance, accusing the district attorney of a "fishing expedition" intended to silence the Americans who voted for him.