Manhattan prosecutors file motion to dismiss Trump suit to block tax returns subpoena

Sept. 23 (UPI) -- The Manhattan District Attorney's Office filed a motion Monday asking a judge to dismiss President Donald Trump's effort to block a subpoena seeking his tax returns.

Prosecutors responded to Trump's lawsuit filed last week against the district attorney's office, which said a grand jury subpoena of his accounting firm Mazars USA was unconstitutional, stating the office of the president does not protect him from such cases.

"The plaintiff's position is that none of this conduct, unrelated to the office of the president, can be investigated while the president remains in office," the prosecutors stated. "The law provides no such sweeping immunity."

The prosecutors added that the grand jury is entitled to seek the evidence and must be allowed to pursue the investigation "free from interference and litigious delay" in order to inquire whether laws have been violated.

The filing also stated that any challenge to the subpoena should be filed in New York state court and not federal court.

"The subpoena is amenable to the same challenges in the New York courts that a federal forum provides and the plaintiff has failed to show as a threshold matter why this court should be tasked with overseeing its enforcement," the district attorney's office said.

The grand jury issued the subpoena last week, seeking eight years of Trump's personal and corporate tax returns related to hush-money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, born Stephanie Clifford, for her to keep quiet about an affair she said she had with Trump.

Trump then countered asking the judge to suspend the subpoena until he was no longer in office.