George Conway, lawyer and husband to senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, argued in a new Washington Post op-ed that he believes President Trump will lose an upcoming Supreme Court case centered around his tax returns.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office last year issued a grand-jury subpoena to Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA, for the president’s tax returns and other financial records. The DA’s office is seeking the documents as part of an investigation into payments made to two women with whom Trump allegedly had affairs.
Shortly after the subpoena was issued, Trump’s personal lawyers sued to block it, arguing that the subpoena is unconstitutional because presidents can’t be criminally investigated while in office. Federal judges at the district and appeals court levels ruled against Trump. The case is now pending before the Supreme Court.
Conway argues in his op-ed that precedent means the president will lose his case and be forced to reveal his tax returns.
“Trump’s position stupefies,” Conway writes of Trump’s lawyers’ arguments. “In essence: Authorities can’t investigate anything touching his personal affairs — including, ahem, payments to pornographic actresses — because he’s president. Think of the logic: Not only does the president enjoy a personal constitutional immunity — his businesses do, too.”
Conway ultimately argues precedent in the case of Clinton v. Jones would mean the subpoenaed tax documents aren’t related to Trump’s presidential duties and therefore not private.
Trump is the first president in decades who hasn’t made any of his tax returns public, and he has been vigorously pursuing court action to keep information about his taxes and finances private.