Trump: Supreme Court tax return decision a ‘continuation of the greatest political witch hunt’

close

Video

Should Donald Trump run for office in 2024?

Trump voters discuss the next generation of Republican leadership on 'The Story'

Former President Trump on Monday slammed the Supreme Court for declining to halt the turnover of his tax records to a New York prosecutor, calling it "a continuation of the greatest political Witch Hunt in the history of our Country."

The court's action is the apparent culmination of a lengthy legal battle that had already reached the high court once before. 

SUPREME COURT WON'T HALT TURNOVER OF TRUMP'S TAX RECORDS

Trump's tax records are not supposed to become public as part of prosecutor's criminal investigation, but the high court's action is a blow to Trump because he has for so long fought on so many fronts to keep his tax records shielded from view. The ongoing investigation the records are part of could also become an issue for Trump in his life after the presidency. Trump has called it "a fishing expedition" and "a continuation of the witch hunt."

Trump, in a statement Monday, slammed investigations that plagued his presidency—including former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, which he called the "never ending $32 million Mueller hoax…where there was a finding of ‘No Collusion,’" and the "two ridiculous ‘Crazy Nancy’ inspired impeachment attempts where I was found NOT GUILTY."

"It never ends!" Trump said. "So now, for more than two years, New York City has been looking at almost every transaction I’ve ever done, including seeking tax returns which were done by among the biggest and most prestigious law and accounting firms in the U.S."

Trump said that the Supreme Court "should never have let this ‘fishing expedition’ happen, but they did."

Video

"This is something which has never happened to a President before, it is all Democrat-inspired in a totally Democrat location, New York City and State, completely controlled and dominated by a heavily reported enemy of mine, Governor Andrew Cuomo," Trump said.

The former president said that "the new phenomenon of ‘headhunting’ prosecutors and AGs—who try to take down their political opponents using the law as a weapon—is a threat to the very foundation of our liberty."

"That’s what is done in third world countries," he continued. "Even worse are those who run for prosecutorial or attorney general offices in far-left states and jurisdictions pledging to take out a political opponent."Trump added: "That’s fascism, not justice—and that is exactly what they are trying to do with respect to me, except that the people of our Country won’t stand for it."

Trump went on to slam crime in New York City, saying elected officials "don’t care," but instead, "all they focus on is the persecution of President Donald J. Trump."

"I will fight on, just as I have, for the last five years (even before I was successfully elected), despite all of the election crimes that were committed against me," he said. "We will win!"

The Supreme Court waited months to act in the case, with the previous written briefs filed in October. The court did not give an explanation for the delay, and the legal issue before the justices did not involve whether Trump was due any special deference because he was president.

The court's order is a win for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who has been seeking Trump's tax records since 2019 as part of an investigation. Vance, a Democrat, had subpoenaed the records from the Mazars accounting firm that has long done work for Trump and his businesses. Mazars has said it would comply with the subpoena, but Trump, a Republican, sued to block the records' release.

Vance's office had said it would be free to enforce the subpoena and obtain the records in the event the Supreme Court declined to step in and halt the records' turnover, but it was unclear when that might happen.

The case the Supreme Court ruled in involves a grand jury subpoena for more than eight years of Trump's personal and corporate tax records. Vance has disclosed little about what prompted him to request the records. In one court filing last year, however, prosecutors said they were justified in demanding the records because of public reports of "possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization."

Part of the probe involves payments to two women — porn actress Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal — to keep them quiet during the 2016 presidential campaign about alleged extramarital affairs with Trump. Trump has denied the affairs.

In July, the justices in a 7-2 ruling rejected Trump's argument that the president is immune from investigation while he holds office or that a prosecutor must show a greater need than normal to obtain the tax records.

Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, whom Trump nominated to the high court, joined that decision. It was issued before Trump's third nominee, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, replaced the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the court.

As part of its July decision, the high court returned the Vance case and a similar case involving records sought by Congress to lower courts. And the court prevented the records from being turned over while the cases proceeded.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Since the high court's ruling, in the Vance case, Trump's attorneys made additional arguments that his tax records should not be turned over, but they lost again in federal court in New York and on appeal. It was those rulings that Trump had sought to put on hold.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.