US Supreme Court justices have ordered Donald Trump to hand over his tax returns. The United States’ highest court ruled Thursday that the documents be handed over to New York prosecutors as part of a probe into whether he paid hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The Supreme Court’s nine justices voted 7-2 in favor of ordering Trump to hand over the documentation. Those seven included the two justices Trump himself appointed since becoming president – Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
But justices also barred the US Congress from seeing the returns for its own purposes, and sent their demand back to the lower courts. Trump had sought to claim that he was immune from subpoenas (legal demands) to hand over his tax returns because he is President of the United States.
He denies a fling with Daniels in 2006, with his disgraced ex-fixer Michael Cohen handing the adult actress $110,000 in hush money weeks before the November 2016 election which Trump went on to win.
Daniels says the money was paid to her to stop her speaking about the alleged one night stand, which happened a year after Trump’s third wife Melania gave birth to their son Barron, now 14.
Trump’s tax returns are held by his accountancy firm Mazars USA, which previously indicated it would comply with any court order to hand them over. The New York court handling prosecutor Cy Vance Jr’s request for Trump’s returns is likely to issue a formal request for them in the coming weeks.
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