Manhattan DA agrees to delay enforcement of subpoena of Trump's tax returns

(CNN)The Manhattan district attorney's office said Monday that it has agreed not to enforce a subpoena to an accounting firm for President Donald Trump's financial records until after a federal appeals court has ruled on Trump's request for a stay pending appeal of his lawsuit.

The deadline for the subpoena had been set to expire this week, but the appeals court said last week that it won't hear oral arguments in the case until September 1, which left a window of several days where prosecutors could have sought to obtain the records from the accounting firm, Mazars USA.
District Attorney Cyrus Vance's letter filed with the court eliminated that possibility and extended the already lengthy effort by prosecutors to open a window into the President's financial history.
    Last year, Vance's office subpoenaed Mazars, seeking eight years of Trump's personal and business records and tax returns, documents prosecutors have said are crucial to their investigation regarding the Trump Organization. Vance's office has been examining whether Trump or the company violated state laws in connection with hush-money payments made to women alleging affairs with Trump during the 2016 presidential election.
      The investigation has also looked into whether business records filed with the state were falsified and if any tax laws were violated, CNN has reported.
          Trump's appeal came in response to a decision earlier this month by US District Judge Victor Marrero to toss Trump's amended lawsuit challenging the subpoena.
          Should Vance succeed in accessing the records, they likely wouldn't become public unless they are used as evidence at trial, because grand-jury secrecy rules dictate they remain confidential.