Donald Trump assailed the U.S. Supreme Court’s order on Monday denying him a stay and, therefore, allowing Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance to obtain his tax returns. Trump, while claiming he is merely being targeted by his political enemies, once again repeated the lie that he was the true winner of the 2020 election.
The justices issued orders in several high profile cases on Monday morning that suggested the Court has a desire to distance itself and move on from some of the most controversial disputes of the Trump era, including the multi-year saga surrounding the disclosure of financial documents relating to his personal and business dealings in Trump v. Vance.
Trump’s statement indicated that he is neither ready to move on from his election loss nor willing to let the Supreme Court’s perceived transgression go without comment.
“The Supreme Court never should have let this ‘fishing expedition’ happen, but they did,” the former president said in a press release titled, “Statement on the Continuing Political Persecution of President Donald J. Trump.”
“This is something which has never happened to a President before, it is all Democrat-inspired in a totally Democrat location, New York City and State, completely controlled and dominated by a heavily reported enemy of mine, Governor Andrew Cuomo,” the statement went on.
Trump then saw fit to once again falsely say that he, not President Joe Biden, received more votes in the 2020 election. He said that he agreed with the “feel[ing]” that he won.
“These are attacks by Democrats willing to do anything to stop the almost 75 million people (the most votes, by far, ever gotten by a sitting president) who voted for me in the election—an election which many people, and experts, feel that I won,” he wrote, adding, “I agree!”
Trump’s court loss was widely seen as inevitable by legal experts. Vance had won at nearly every stage of the litigation surrounding the Aug. 2019 subpoena issued against the Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA LLP. The Supreme Court held last year as well that a sitting president is not absolutely immune from the state criminal process. The process has only been delayed due to myriad appeals filed by Trump’s legal team.
Trump also unironically derided state and local prosecutors for trying “to take down their political opponents using the law as a weapon,” saying it was “a threat to the very foundation of our liberty.”
While in office, Trump consistently attempted to use the DOJ to go after his own political opponents, repeatedly calling for investigations into Obama administration officials.
Biden’s nominee for attorney general, Merrick Garland, focused heavily during Monday’s confirmation hearings on ensuring that there would be no politicization of the DOJ under his watch.
Trump concluded with a promise to “fight on” against so-called “election crimes” against him, saying “we will win” in the end—though it’s unclear what that means.
Vance’s response to the decision was more subdued. He simply tweeted, “The work continues.”
https://twitter.com/ManhattanDA/status/1363860879893286915?s=20
[image via Michael Reaves/Getty Images]
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