A Taxing Explanation, Con't

The White House is going all the way to the Supreme Court to keep Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance from seeing Donald Trump's tax returns and it could be a major, precedent-setting case involving Presidential power...if the high court takes it up, which is no guarantee.

President Trump's lawyers intend to petition the U.S. Supreme Court by Nov. 14 to review a lower court ruling requiring the president to turn over eight years of his tax returns to a state grand jury, according to a letter written Friday.

Why it matters: This case would mark the first time the Supreme Court makes a decision on Trump's legal argument — that he is immune from criminal investigation while in office — and could "produce a major statement on the limits of presidential power," the New York Times reports.

Details: The Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which said on Monday that Trump must turn over his tax returns, dodged Trump's legal arguments that he is exempt from criminal investigations while in the White House. Instead, the court stated the president’s accounting firm is being subpoenaed for the documents — rather than Trump himself. 

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance subpoenaed Trump's tax returns as part of an investigation into hush-money payments allegedly made to Stormy Daniels by by the Trump Organization during the 2016 election.

Background: Trump has filed at least three lawsuits to block the release of his tax returns. The president, his family and his company also filed a lawsuit against Deutsche Bank to block the bank from complying with congressional subpoenas for their business records.

My guess is the court won't touch the case and the narrow scope of the Second Circuit ruling -- that Vance is entitled to the tax returns because Trump's accountants aren't immune to the subpoena -- will stand.  But of course, the returns will be leaked, and we'll find out that Trump has been fast, loose, and comically ugly with his numbers.

It'll be a massive embarrassment to loser Trump, and he will lash out.

On the other hand, we could finally get that republic-ending Supreme Court precedent that the Chief Executive and the entire branch are utterly immune to state legal proceedings.

At this point, who knows?