Notes on yesterday's 2d Circuit decision in Trump v. Vance, requiring Mazars to provide Trump's tax & business records to a NY grand jury:
1. Chief Judge Katzmann's opinion, issued only 12 days after argument, is impeccable. It's not a close case.
ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isys…
1. Chief Judge Katzmann's opinion, issued only 12 days after argument, is impeccable. It's not a close case.
ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isys…
2. The parties have agreed to expedited briefing at the cert. stage, so the case will be teed up for the Supreme Court's consideration in just a few weeks. The Court *should* deny cert.--as I said, it's not a hard case. But we shall see.
3. Even if the Court denies cert., ...
3. Even if the Court denies cert., ...
4. ... don't get your hopes up that you might see Trump's records soon. The parties in the grand jury proceedings can't make them public. During Trump's term they'll be disclosed only in a trial of *other* persons, if they're relevant there--which'll be months from now, at best.
5. Thus the much more important cases are those where Trump has sued the House: the D.C. Cir. Mazars case, in which the court will likely deny en banc proceedings any day now, and the 2d Circuit Deutsche Bank case, which a panel hasn't yet decided several months after argument.
6. It's unlikely the SCOTUS will deny cert., or issue a merits decision, in those cases, until early 2020 at best. But if and when it does so, that's when the House, and possibly the public, might learn about Trump's foreign financial entanglements/obligations/conflicts, if any.
