President Donald Trump arrives at Morristown municipal airport for a weekend at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, August 2, 2019.
Yuri Gripas | Reuters
A federal appeals court in New York City said Tuesday that it will act by the end of the day on a request by President Donald Trump to block, at least temporarily, a grand jury subpoena seeking his income tax returns from his accountants.
And a lawyer for Trump and for the Manhattan district attorney, who is seeking those returns as part of a criminal probe, told a three-judge panel on the appeals court that if the panel grants a stay of the subpoena, they would both be willing to agree to an expedited schedule to appeal a lower court order upholding that demand for documents.
Trump’s lawyer, William Consovoy, told the panel during a hearing Tuesday that if it does not grant him a stay pending a full appeal hearing of a lower court order, he wants an administrative stay that would allow the president time to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to block the subpoena for now.
“You can expect something from us by the end of the day,” said Judge John Walker of the United States Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit after listening to arguments over the stay from Consovoy and a lawyer from Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr.’s office.
