Press Releases
03/03/2020
Attorney General Tong: No President is Immune from Justice
SCOTUS Amicus brief in Trump v. Vance Says Trump cannot block a valid subpoena sent to his accounting firm seeking financial records
(Hartford, CT) -- Attorney General William Tong today joined Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring and a coalition of 16 attorneys general fighting to ensure that President Trump cannot impede criminal investigations and hide evidence of potential crimes. In an amicus brief filed in Trump v. Vance, the group urges the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm a decision by the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which concluded that President Trump cannot block a valid grand jury subpoena sent to his accounting firm. The subpoena seeks financial records as part of an ongoing investigation by the District Attorney of New York.
“No one is above the law. No President is immune from justice. If a potential crime occurred in Manhattan, the district attorney must have access to the evidence and records he needs to pursue a fair and comprehensive investigation. Trump must not be allowed to use our courts to impede justice and hide evidence. This is about more than this case and this president—it is a fight to defend the integrity of our legal system,” said Attorney General Tong.
In the amicus brief, the coalition argues that President Trump is not above the law and says that “[the Supreme Court] has repeatedly held that the President is not immune from judicial process.” Adding that the Supreme Court has “already rejected nearly all of the arguments the President and the DOJ urge in favor of immunity.”
President Trump has made a baseless and ridiculous argument that upholding the Second Circuit’s decision would allow state and local prosecutors to pursue criminal actions against the president purely based on political motivations. The brief states that the President has been “unable to offer a previous example of the kind of harassing prosecution he claims will be ubiquitous.” Further, “the President’s brief relies on conjecture and the paradoxical assertion that the fact that this case is the first of its kind proves that presidential immunity has long been accepted.”
The grand jury subpoena at issue “seeks information about events predating the President’s time in office, when he was a private citizen and a resident of New York” and “does not threaten any interference with the President’s official acts…[and] it does not even involve them,” the brief states. The subpoena was directed to a corporation that is associated with the President and does not actually “purport to compel the President to do anything at all.”
Attorney General Tong joins Virginia Attorney General Herring and the attorneys general of California, D.C., Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington in filing today’s brief.
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