Prosecutors in New York pushed back on Monday against an argument from President Trump's attorneys that a sitting president cannot be subjected to a criminal investigation.
Trump is trying to block a grand jury subpoena for eight years of his personal and corporate tax returns, and sued the New York County District Attorney's office last week. His attorneys say this subpoena is unconstitutional and should be suspended until Trump is out of office.
The prosecutors, investigating hush-money payments made in 2016 to two women who said they had affairs with Trump, sent the subpoena to Trump's accounting firm, Mazars USA. In their Monday court filing, prosecutors said Trump does not have "sweeping immunity" and is "seeking to invent and enforce a new presidential 'tax return privilege,' on the theory that disclosing information in a tax return will necessarily reveal information that will somehow impeded the functioning of a president, sufficiently to meet the test of irreparable harm."
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Trump's claim is hurt by the fact that "every president since Jimmy Carter has voluntarily released his tax returns before or upon taking office, which has to date never impeded a president's ability to serve," prosecutors said. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Wednesday.
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