(Washington) The Supreme Court of the United States inflicted a setback on Donald Trump on Thursday, ruling that a New York prosecutor was entitled to claim the accounting records of the American president, including his statements of tax, but has blocked, for now, their transfer to Congress.
Posted on July 9 2020 at 10 h 43 Updated at 12 h 00
Charlotte PLANTIVE
France Media Agency
His two decisions, each taken by a majority of seven judges out of nine, should not, however, allow American citizens to know more about the finances of the republican billionaire before the presidential election of November 3, in which he is standing for re-election. .
“The Supreme Court refers the case to a lower court, the proceedings continue. These are just political pursuits, “Donald Trump immediately tweeted.
In a first decision, the Supreme Court clearly contradicted the president who, since taking office, has enjoyed absolute immunity as long as he is in the White House.
“No citizen, not even the president, can avoid having to produce documents in the event of a criminal investigation,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts for the majority. “The president does not enjoy absolute immunity from orders from state justice attorneys,” she added.
A New York prosecutor, who is investigating a possible violation of the laws on the financing of electoral campaigns, can therefore ask him for evidence, in this case a whole series of financial documents, relating to his affairs. between and 2018.
“Not above the law”
“It is a huge victory for our judicial system and its founding principle that no one – not even the president – is above the law”, reacted Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan prosecutor who supervises this investigation .
But the investigations are carried out by a grand jury, a collective of citizens drawn by lot who operate in the greatest secrecy and, in theory, nothing should be made public.
In a second judgment, the high court immediately blocked the transmission of comparable documents requested by Congress. She referred this request to the courts, asking the judges to take into account a whole series of criteria when assessing whether parliamentary orders were justified.
For the head of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, this decision “is not good news” for the president.
“Even if it requests more information from Congress, the Court reaffirmed the authority of Congress to carry out supervision missions (of the executive) on behalf of the American people,” she said. , promising that the elected democrats would continue to “seek the truth, in particular on the links between the president and Russia”.
Unlike all his predecessors over the years 1970, Donald Trump, who made his fortune a campaign argument, refuses publish their tax returns. Its lack of transparency feeds speculations on the extent of its wealth or on potential conflicts of interest.
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To try to find out more, three committees of the House of Representatives, in the hands of the Democrats, had asked in 2019 to the Mazars cabinet, but also to the banks Deutsche Bank and Capital One a whole series of financial documents relating to the businesses of Donald Trump between 2010 and 2018, but also on those of his relatives including his children.
At the same time, Manhattan prosecutor Cyrus Vance, a Democrat, asked the accounting firm Mazars to provide him with the financial records of Donald Trump for the same period to shed light on a payment made during the campaign to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels.
This payment could have been used to buy the silence of the young woman on a supposed connection with the billionaire, in violation of the laws of financing of the electoral campaigns in force in the state.
During the proceedings, the President's lawyers considered that he could not be prosecuted during his presidency, going so far as to say that he could shoot someone in the street without being worried in the 'immediate.
