Court Keeps Shroud on Tax Returns Tied to Trump

MANHATTAN (CN) – Without disturbing Deutsche Bank’s redactions of tax returns tied to President Donald Trump, the Second Circuit on Thursday struck one prominent name from the list of candidates.

Deutsche does not have Trump’s returns, the federal appeals court disclosed in a 12-page decision that denies a motion to unseal filed by the Associated Press and six other news outlets.

“Even though the president is not suing in his official capacity, as his complaint explicitly acknowledges and no claim of executive privilege has been asserted in the underlying appeal, disclosure of a president’s tax returns might raise an issue meriting consideration distinct from that given to disclosure of the returns of other taxpayers,” the 12-page summary order states.

As to the identities of the two Trump associates who gave their taxes to the German lender, however, the court was mum, saying such information is not “relevant” to their deciding the validity of House subpoenas for those records.

“The fact that Deutsche Bank has their tax returns adds nothing to the arguments of the parties in the pending appeal,” the ruling states.

The AP brought the records request last month alongside The New York Times, Washington Post, Politico and CNN. Dow Jones and Reuters later joined the media coalition.

“There is no genuine privacy concern implicated by Deutsche Bank confirming what is already widely understood — that it has copies of certain of the president’s or his affiliates’ financial records — but it would set a disturbing precedent to allow redactions of such rudimentary facts to go unchallenged, particularly in a case involving a sitting president,” Ballard Spahr attorneys Jay Brown and Jacquelyn Schell wrote for the news outlets on Sept. 11.

U.S. Circuit Judges Peter Hall, Debra Ann Livingston and Jon Newman have not yet ruled on whether House Democrats can access the sought-after records. 

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