In Stormy Daniels Case, Donald Trump Sues To Stop Records Release

LOS ANGELES—AVN Hall of Famer Stormy Daniels’ year-long, headline-making lawsuit against Donald Trump over a “hush money” deal she had signed ended in March of last year. But fallout from the case continues to dog Trump, as the Manhattan, New York, district attorney investigates the case. On Monday, in a newly refiled lawsuit, Trump made what The New York Times called “his most forceful and detailed legal attack yet” against DA Cyrus Vance Jr.’s attempt to uncover Trump’s tax returns and other financial records that could shed light on the $130,000 “hush” payment made to Daniels shortly before the 2016 presidential election. Vance opened his investigation in August of 2019. Trump’s now-former lawyer, Michael Cohen, was sentenced to three years in federal prison over charges in part stemming from the hush money payment, which prosecutors and a judge agreed constituted an illegal campaign donation. Though Trump was identified — under the now-famous pseudonym “Individual 1” — in court papers as having directed Cohen to make the payment to Daniels, he was not indicted. In his subsequent investigation into the $130,000 payment, Vance issued subpoenas to Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA, demanding the company turn over eight years of both Trump’s personal and business tax returns.  Trump and his lawyers attempted to block the subpoenas, arguing that a currently serving president is immune from criminal investigations, even at the state and local level. On July 9, however, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Trump cannot block the release of his financial records. But the Supreme Court did not prevent the president from continuing his attempts to block the tax return subpoenas using other legal arguments. His lawyers earlier this week told a federal judge that Vance’s demands for the returns are “wildly overbroad” and “issued in bad faith.”  Trump’s lawyers said that the subpoenas were “invalid and unenforecable,” and asked a judge to stop Vance from taking any action to enforce them, and extract the tax returns from the accountants. The case goes back to Daniels’ claim that she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. In 2016, Cohen paid Daniels the $130,000 in exchange for her agreement not to discuss the affair. Trump, according to Cohen and the court findings, directed “nearly every step” of the payment process and ultimately reimbursed Cohen for the money, attempting to disguise the reimbursement as a legal retainer fee. Photo By Oxford Union YouTube Screen Capture