Supreme Court hears Trump records cases

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday morning via phone over whether President Donald Trump must release his personal banking and accounting records to congressional and state subpoenas.

Who wants the information and why? In Trump v. Mazars and Trump v. Deutsche Bank, Democratic-led committees in the U.S. House of Representatives want access to the president’s tax returns. Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, testified that the president inaccurately reported his financial information to tax authorities. In Trump v. Vance, the New York County, N.Y., district attorney’s office subpoenaed the president’s tax returns for an investigation into “hush money” allegedly paid to two women who claimed to have had extramarital affairs with him. Trump’s lawyers argued the president has broad immunity from criminal proceedings while in office and the House does not need the information for any legitimate legislative purpose.

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read my report in The Sift for more background on Democrats’ efforts to get Trump’s financial records.