Politics

Supreme Court will hear three cases over Trump's financial records

Key Points
  • The Supreme Court says Friday that it will hear three cases over President Donald Trump's financial records next year.
  • Trump has asked the justices to reverse three lower court rulings that would require his longtime accounting firm and two of his banks to hand over financial records to investigators.
  • The arguments are likely to be the most high-profile of the term and will test the court's newly constituted conservative majority.
  • A decision is expected by the end of June, in the midst of the 2020 presidential election.
Supreme Court agrees to hear 3 cases over Trump's financial records
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Supreme Court agrees to hear 3 cases over Trump's financial records

The Supreme Court said on Friday that it will hear three cases over President Donald Trump's financial records next year, and scheduled arguments for its March session.

The arguments are likely to be the most high-profile of the term, and will test the court's newly constituted conservative majority. A decision is expected by the end of June, in the midst of the 2020 presidential election.

The cases are the first in which Trump's personal dealings have come before the top court since he became president.

Read more: Trump brings a third case over his financial records to the Supreme Court

Trump asked the justices to reverse three lower court rulings that would require his longtime accounting firm and two of his banks to hand over financial records to investigators.

The nine-member panel has a 5-4 conservative majority, including two Trump appointees, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

Trump is the first president in more than four decades not to voluntarily make his tax records public and has fought vigorously to shield his finances.

Two of the cases involve subpoenas issued by congressional committees led by Democrats in the House of Representatives. One involves an investigation led by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance into potential violations of New York state law.

The cases raise separate legal questions, but all could turn on a sweeping view of presidential immunity put forward by Trump's personal attorneys.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC. Jay Sekulow, the president's private counsel, said in a statement that "we are pleased that the Supreme Court granted review of the President's three pending cases."

"These cases raise significant constitutional issues. We look forward to presenting our written and oral arguments," he said.

The first case to reach the top court stems from an investigation launched by the Manhattan district attorney's office, which is examining how the Trump Organization accounted for hush-money payments made to two women alleging affairs with Trump in the months before the 2016 presidential election.

Trump has denied the affairs with porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. His attorneys have argued that the president enjoys temporary immunity from such investigations while in office.

Vance's office issued a subpoena to the president's longtime accounting firm Mazars, seeking eight years of the president's corporate and personal financial records, which the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld.

The second case involves a subpoena issued to Mazars by the Democratic-led House Oversight Committee, which has said that it is pursuing whether new ethics-in-government legislation is needed. That subpoena was upheld by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The third case involves subpoenas issued to the president's lenders, Deutsche Bank and Capital One, by the House intelligence and financial services committees.

Those committees have argued that they are pursuing an investigation into foreign money laundering. The subpoenas seek information about both Trump and his family members. The 2nd Circuit upheld those subpoenas last week.

Trump has denied wrongdoing.

— CNBC's Dan Mangan contributed reporting.

The saga of Trump's taxes
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The saga of Trump's taxes