The documents are subject to grand jury nondisclosure rules that restrict their public release.
The ruling is a bitter loss to Trump, even as the tax data is foreclosed from disclosure, after consistently arguing that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s subpoena was too broad and issued in bad faith.
It means that the grand jury’s investigation into alleged hush payments and other issues will no longer be hampered by Trump’s struggle to keep the documents secret.
Trump’s legal team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While Trump’s personal attorneys may continue to challenge their appeals in the case, the fact that the documents will be released by Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars, puts an end to the dispute.
Last July, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s widespread claims for immunity from a criminal subpoena from the state seeking his tax return by 7-2 votes, saying that as president he was not entitled to any kind of elevated standard unavailable to ordinary citizens . The judges returned the case to the lower court so that the president could raise more targeted objections about the scope of the subpoena.
In October, a federal appeals court said “there is nothing to indicate that these are anything but mundane documents typically relevant to a grand jury investigation into possible financial or business misconduct.”
Trump’s personal attorneys then took the case back to the Supreme Court, urging the judges to put the lower court’s ruling on hold while the judges considered bringing the appeal.
“The subpoena is geographically extensive, extended in time, and locally unlimited – all the attributes evoking suspicions of an illegal fishing expedition,” wrote William Consovoy. “Even if disclosure is limited to the grand jury and prosecutors,” he said, “once the documents are delivered” confidentially, “it will be lost forever.”
The subpoenas span documents from January 2011 to August 2019, including his tax returns, from Trump’s old accounting firm, Mazars. The documents relate to the Trump Organization’s appointment of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and the payment Cohen reportedly made to two women who claimed to have had extramarital affairs with Trump.
This story has been updated with additional information.