Judge rejects Trump challenge to release of his tax returns

A federal judge Monday emphatically rejected President Donald Trump's challenge to the release of his tax returns to New York prosecutors, saying the president's broad claim of immunity from all criminal investigations is at odds with the Constitution.

But an appeals court blocked any handover of the records for now.

At issue is a request from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R Vance Jr that Trump's accounting firm turn over eight years' worth of his business and personal tax returns for an investigation into the payment of hush money to two women who claimed to have had affairs with the president.

US District Judge Victor Marrero turned down Trump's attempt to keep the tax returns under wraps, saying the president was making a "categorical and limitless assertion of presidential immunity."
"The Radical Left Democrats have failed on all fronts," Trump fumed on Twitter, "so now they are pushing local New York City and State Democrat prosecutors to go get President Trump. A thing like this has never happened to any President before. Not even close!"
Marrero called Trump's claim of broad immunity "extraordinary" and "an overreach of executive power."
"That constitutional protection presumably would encompass any conduct, at any time, in any forum, whether federal or state, and whether the President acted alone or in concert with other individuals."