WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that President Donald Trump must hand over his tax returns to New York prosecutors but temporarily blocked Congress from accessing his financial records.

The rulings prompted a string of furious tweets from Trump and were a setback to his claim of absolute immunity from criminal investigation while in office.

At the same time, the rulings may allow Trump to keep his finances private until after the November presidential election.

The nation’s top court ruled 7-2 against Trump in a case brought by Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance, a Democrat who is seeking eight years of the president’s financial records in connection with an alleged “hush money” payment made to porn actress Stormy Daniels.

Both of the conservative justices appointed by Trump — Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — joined Chief Justice John Roberts in rejecting the sweeping claim by Trump’s attorneys that the president enjoyed absolute immunity.

“Two hundred years ago, a great jurist of our court established that no citizen, not even the president, is categorically above the common duty to produce evidence when called upon in a criminal proceeding,” Roberts said. “We reaffirm that principle today.”

The other case before the nation’s highest court concerned a request by three Democratic-led congressional committees for Trump’s tax returns and financial records and the president received a temporary reprieve there.

In another 7-2 ruling, the court sent the congressional case back to a lower court for further consideration.

Vance called the ruling “a tremendous victory for our nation’s system of justice and its founding principle that no one — not even a president — is above the law.

“Our investigation, which was delayed for almost a year by this lawsuit, will resume, guided as always by the grand jury’s solemn obligation to follow the law and the facts, wherever they may lead,” Vance said.

Jay Sekulow, Trump’s attorney, also welcomed the rulings, seeking to portray them as a win for the president.

“We are pleased that in the decisions issued today, the Supreme Court has temporarily blocked both Congress and New York prosecutors from obtaining the president’s financial records,” Sekulow said.

“We will now proceed to raise additional constitutional and legal issues in the lower courts.”

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2020