US Supreme Court to probe Trump’s refusal to declare financial records

The US Supreme Court has announced plan to decide whether President Donald Trump’s tax returns and other financial records can be examined by Congress and prosecutors.

Mr Trump has been accused of refusal to share documents concerning his fortune and business.

While Trump’s lawyers argues that his client “enjoys total immunity while in office”, the court insists to scrutinize the claim.

Even a ruling in Congress’s favour would not necessarily make Mr Trump’s tax returns public before his bid for re-election in November.

Mr Trump, who claims he made his fortune as a property developer, is the first president since Richard Nixon in the 1970s not to have made his tax returns public.

He calls the investigation into his tax affairs a “witch hunt” and sees the congressional case as a device to harass him politically.

Two Democrat-controlled House of Representatives committees and New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance – also a Democrat – are demanding the release of his tax returns and other information.

Lower courts in Washington and New York ruled against the president in all cases, but those decisions have been put on hold pending a final court ruling.

Mr Trump’s lawyers argued that ” The Congress has no authority to issue the subpoenas, and no valid justification to seek the records.”

Damaging revelations about President Trump’s financial affairs could hurt his campaign for re-election.

The New York investigation covers alleged hush money payments made by Mr Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to two women – adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal – who both say they had affairs with Mr Trump.

Such payments could violate campaign financing laws. The president denies the affairs took place.