Donald Trump doesn’t view the legal system the way you and I do. For us, it’s a last resort – to be turned to only if all other ways of resolving a problem or disagreement have failed. For Trump, it’s a first instinct – a way to muddy the waters or slow down a negative storyline.
As Politico’s Michael Kruse wrote back in 2019 of Trump’s love of litigation:
“For nearly half a century, Trump … has used lawsuits as cudgels and prods and publicity stunts. He and his wingmen have used them, or threats of them, to harass, to deflect and delay, to punish opponents and protect his brand, his money, his image, himself. Even in the face of losses, he has used them to find a way to wins.”
How often does Trump sue – or counter-sue? According to an exhaustive study by USA Today, Trump and his business have been involved in more than 4,000(!) lawsuits over the past three decades. Four thousand!!!
All of which brings me to a ruling on Thursday morning by US District Judge Victor Marrero, in which he flatly called Trump’s longtime legal strategy out.
In dismissing Trump’s attempt to block the turning over of his tax records to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance as part of an ongoing grand jury probe into the hush money that was paid to two women alleging affairs with Trump, Marrero scolded the President’s “enable the clock to run” approach,” adding:
“At its core, it amounts to absolute immunity through a back door, an entry point through which not only a President but also potentially other persons and entities, public and private, could effectively gain cover from judicial process.”
Which, whoa.
As I’ve written before, Trump’s strategy on his tax returns isn’t necessarily to win the case on the release of his returns. It’s simply to use the legal system (and his many appeals) to slow-walk the process until, at least, after the November election. Trump made a decision in the early days of his presidential campaign that whatever flack he would take for being the first major party nominee since Watergate not to release his returns would be less damaging to his prospects of winning than releasing those returns would be.
He’s used all sorts of excuses to defend his lack of transparency – from being under audit to the returns not really being a good picture of someone’s finances to the public not really caring about the issue. But eventually, those excuses failed to stop the demand for the returns from Vance – and so Trump turned to his old reliable: Suing (and counter-suing) to slow it all down.
Marrero did more than just blast Trump’s pet legal strategy on Thursday. He ruled against Trump’s appeal “with prejudice” – which keeps from Trump to making revisions in the lawsuit in order to create another set of legal appeals and, thereby, slow the process down even further.
Trump, because he is Trump, immediately appealed the ruling.
Even if Trump is forced to turn over his tax returns to Vance prior to the election – and that remains a big “if” – it is unlikely the public would see them. Leaking grand jury materials in New York is a crime, and it would likely be severely punished in such a high-profile case as this one.
And so, Trump may win in the end. On keeping his tax returns private until after the 2020 election, that is.
But Marrero’s ruling is still a remarkable bit of legal message-sending. That message? I’m onto you, President Trump.