New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s office has subpoenaed eight years of President Donald Trump’s tax returns from Mazars USA, the longtime accounting firm to Trump and the Trump Organization, as part of its investigation into hush money payments, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The subpoena marks a new escalation in the large-scale effort to obtain the President’s tax returns, a battle that has largely played out in courts as the Trump administration has continued to stand its ground against efforts to secure any of Trump’s financial information.
Trump has claimed that ongoing IRS audits have stopped him from making his tax returns public, even though audits don’t prevent individuals from releasing tax returns.Vance’s office declined to comment.
The subpoena was first reported by The New York Times. It isn’t clear what deadline Mazars USA has to comply with the grand jury subpoena. The firm said it would comply with legal requests.”Mazars USA will respect the legal process and fully comply with its legal obligations,” the company said in a statement.
“We believe strongly in the ethical and professional rules and regulations that govern our industry, our work and our client interactions.
As a matter of firm policy and professional rules we do not comment on the work we conduct for our clients.”Any material obtained by a grand jury subpoena is covered by grand jury secrecy rules and would likely become public only if it were used as evidence at a trial.