Trump’s tax returns in the hands of the Manhattan district attorney

Former President Donald Trump’s tax records were turned over to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. following the Supreme Court’s rejection of the ex-president’s ultimate effort to protect the documents.

Vance spokesman Danny Frost confirmed that a subpoena was issued on Monday against Trump’s longtime accounting firm Mazars USA, hours after the country’s highest court dismissed the appeal from Trump.

The subpoena demanded Trump’s personal and business records from 2011, including his tax returns. Trump has resisted the modern precedent by refusing to release his tax returns to the public even though he ran two campaigns for the presidency.

A spokesperson for the former president did not immediately comment on Thursday. After the court cleared the transfer, Trump vowed to “fight” and said Vance was on a “fishing expedition.”

The long-standing investigation has been closely watched. Early reports suggested the DA was examining silent cash payments made on Trump’s behalf to women who alleged connections with the real estate mogul. Trump has denied the business.

More recent court documents have indicated that Vance may investigate Trump and his namesake company, The Trump Organization, for possible bank and insurance fraud. Trump has repeatedly dismissed the allegations of financial impropriety and accused investigators of partisan motives.

The fight against Trump’s tax documents has been taken to the Supreme Court twice. Both times the panel refused to stop lower court rulings on Vance’s side. In July, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote an opinion for a 7-2 tribunal rejecting Trump’s general argument that he was immune from state-level criminal investigations during his tenure.

“In our justice system, ‘the public has a right to every man’s evidence.’ From the earliest days of the Republic, ‘every man’ has included the President of the United States,” said Roberts, who was appointed to the court by then-President George W. Bush.

After the ruling, Trump’s lawyers continued to fight the subpoena on the grounds that it was too broad and issued in bad faith, but lower courts dismissed those requests. In October, Trump’s lawyers again asked the Supreme Court to intervene, but the court wrote in a one-line order on Monday that it would not do so.

Vance’s possession of Trump’s tax records does not guarantee that the public will ever know what they contain. The records were obtained as part of a grand jury investigation, and New York state law requires grand jury proceedings to be confidential. It’s likely the only way the public will see the documents is if Vance ultimately lays charges and includes parts of the documents in the billing documents.