Media

George Conway pens op-ed predicting Trump will lose Supreme Court case over tax disclosures

by Brooke Seipel - 05/08/20 10:24 PM ET

George Conway, lawyer and husband to senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, argued in a new Washington Post op-ed that he believes President Trump will lose an upcoming Supreme Court case centered around his tax returns.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office last year issued a grand-jury subpoena to Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA, for the president’s tax returns and other financial records. The DA’s office is seeking the documents as part of an investigation into payments made to two women with whom Trump allegedly had affairs.

Shortly after the subpoena was issued, Trump’s personal lawyers sued to block it, arguing that the subpoena is unconstitutional because presidents can’t be criminally investigated while in office. Federal judges at the district and appeals court levels ruled against Trump. The case is now pending before the Supreme Court.

Conway argues in his op-ed that precedent means the president will lose his case and be forced to reveal his tax returns.

“Trump’s position stupefies,” Conway writes of Trump’s lawyers’ arguments. “In essence: Authorities can’t investigate anything touching his personal affairs — including, ahem, payments to pornographic actresses — because he’s president. Think of the logic: Not only does the president enjoy a personal constitutional immunity — his businesses do, too.”

Conway ultimately argues precedent in the case of Clinton v. Jones would mean the subpoenaed tax documents aren’t related to Trump’s presidential duties and therefore not private.

“The Constitution is concerned with protecting the presidency, not the person who happens to be the president. That’s because no one in this country is above the law,” Conway concludes. “The Supreme Court is now called upon to teach that lesson once again — even if Trump will likely never learn it.”

Conway has become an outspoken critic of the president and is a key member of the anti-Trump Republican PAC The Lincoln Project, which has run a slew of ads in recent days criticizing Trump’s coronavirus response.

Conway and others previously filed an amicus brief siding with those subpoenaing the president.

Trump is the first president in decades who hasn’t made any of his tax returns public, and he has been vigorously pursuing court action to keep information about his taxes and finances private.