US federal judge: Trump must produce tax returns
A US federal judge has rejected President Donald Trump's attempt to block access to years of his personal and corporate tax returns.
In a 75-page ruling on Monday, Judge Victor Marrero in New York said sitting presidents are not immune from criminal investigations, AFP reported.
He said such vast immunity would "operate to frustrate the administration of justice" by putting the president's personal and professional affairs off-limits.
"This court cannot endorse such a categorical and limitless assertion of presidential immunity from judicial process," Marrero wrote.
Trump had filed suit against Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who had subpoenaed the accounting firm Mazars USA. The court sought access to Trump’s tax returns dating back to 2011.
Vance is probing payments made by Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney, to Stormy Daniels, a porn star who claimed to have had an affair with Trump before he ran for president.
In an interview with CBS News last year, Daniels said she was threatened to keep silent about her encounter with Trump in 2006.
Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford said Trump had not asked her to keep their affair secret, but said she was approached by a man in a parking lot in Las Vegas, Nevada, after agreeing to sell her story for $15,000 in 2011.
Daniels said she was introduced to Trump at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in July 2006. The real estate mogul invited her to his hotel suite, the only time they had a sexual encounter.
The White House has denied any sexual encounter between the president and Daniels.
Trump's lawyer had arranged a $130,000 payment to her a month before the 2016 presidential election to prevent her from publicly discussing the alleged sexual encounter, according to The Wall Street Journal.
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