The U.S. Department of Justice will intervene in a fight between President Donald Trump and the Manhattan District Attorney over the president’s tax returns.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman sent a letter to Judge Victor Marrero saying he plans to jump in to the case.
“We write respectfully to inform the Court that the United States of America will file a submission by the close of business on Wednesday, October 2, 2019,” he wrote in the Sept. 30 letter.
Manhattan DA Cy Vance subpoenaed eight years of Trump’s personal and corporate tax returns from the president’s accounting firm as part of an investigation into hush money payments made to women who said they had sexual encounters with Trump.
Trump, who has steadfastly refused to make his taxes public like other presidents have done, sued in federal court to block the subpoena.
At a hearing last week, a judge put a brief stay on the subpoena while the Justice Department mulled whether to intervene.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that as president, he cannot be subject to a criminal investigation — a privilege they say should extend to stopping state authorities from getting their hands on his tax returns.
Vance’s lawyers called that a “breathtaking” claim of immunity that has no basis in the law, and also argued the case should be decided by state, not federal, courts.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine