The Supreme Court just helped send Donald Trump to prison
Based on what’s surfaced publicly over the past year, the Manhattan District Attorney and his grand jury already have more than enough evidence to criminally indict Donald Trump on a number of financial charges. But they’ve been waiting to get their hands on Trump’s tax returns. The Supreme Court ruled against Trump on this awhile ago, but never did finalize it. Well, that finally happened today.
In an apparently unanimous decision, the Supreme Court cleared the way for accounting firm Mazars to immediately hand over Trump’s tax returns to the Manhattan DA. Legal experts think this will happen within a few days. This means the grand jury is now going to get the big piece of the puzzle that it’s been trying to get its hands on for more than a year.
While this essentially makes it a given that Trump will be arrested, it doesn’t mean it’ll happen tomorrow. The prosecutors and the grand jury now have to work through the tax return documents, match them up with the evidence they already have, and search the returns for evidence of additional crimes. This means prosecutors can bring a more comprehensive and well-documented criminal case against Trump.
Today’s ruling does not automatically make Trump’s tax returns public, as grand jury proceedings are secret while they’re in progress. That said, once Trump is inevitably indicted, the indictment will become public – and if any of the criminal charges are based on things found in his tax returns, those will be included.
Donald Trump was headed to prison anyway, due to the already wide documentation of his various financial crimes, such as inflating the value of his properties in order to commit bank loan fraud. But today’s Supreme Court ruling just helped make Trump essentially a lock for prison.
