Former President Trump's tax returns have been handed over to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. following the Supreme Court's ruling on Monday that Trump's legal team could not quash Vance's subpoena.
A spokesperson for Vance confirmed to CNBC on Thursday that Trump's longtime accounting firm, Mazars, has complied with the request, giving Vance access to what sources told CNN are "millions of pages of documents" containing Trump's financial statements, agreements, tax preparations, and more.
On Monday, Trump's lawyers called Vance's probe "a fishing expedition" and accused it of having partisan motives after the Supreme Court ruled that it would not shield the former president from such a criminal probe.
Early reports speculated that Vance might be looking into the alleged hush-money payments made by the former President to women with whom he had alleged extramarital affairs. Recent filings, however, show that Vance might be investigating concerns related to bank and insurance fraud. The documents are expected to contain the true valuations of Trump's assets, information that many have said Trump falsified in the past. People familiar with the investigation told CNN that Vance's team intends to review the documents thoroughly before calling any witness to a grand jury to testify against Trump.
Trump's non-compliance has brought the case to the Supreme Court twice. Both times, the Court ruled in Vance's favor.
In the first case, which occurred in July of last year, Chief Justice John Roberts made a point to explain why Trump did not qualify for the legal immunity his team demanded. "In our judicial system, 'the public has a right to every man's evidence,'" Roberts opined, "Since the earliest days of the Republic, 'every man' has included the President of the United States."
Trump's legal team continued to fight the ruling in lower courts on the grounds that Vance's subpoena was overbroad and issued in bad faith. However, lower courts threw out those claims. When Trump's lawyers brought the case back to the Supreme Court, the Court stated in a one-line order that it would involve itself again.
Although Vance now has full access to Trump's tax returns, grand jury secrecy laws prevent the documents from being made public unless Vance were to indict Trump on criminal charges. According to CNN, Vance has also subpoenaed Deutsche Bank, one of Trump's most loyal creditors, for documents relating to the loans it provided to the President for the past several decades. Multiple sources familiar with the investigation also said that Vance subpoenaed Aon, Trump's insurance broker, Ladder Capital, which loaned Trump some $100 million, and the Trump Organization, which paid consulting fees to the former President's daughter, Ivanka Trump.
Shares