WASHINGTON — President Trump on Thursday said he was “not satisfied” with the Supreme Court’s ruling that a New York grand jury can subpoena his tax returns, lashing his native New York as a “hell hole.”
“From a certain point I’m satisfied, from another point I’m not satisfied because frankly this is a political witch hunt, the likes of which nobody’s ever seen,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Supreme Court justices ruled earlier Thursday that the president is not immune from subpoenas and criminal investigations, allowing Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. to seek eight years of Trump’s tax returns, which have been a closely guarded secret.
The court also blocked a similar effort by congressional investigators, arguing the request was too broad, before punting both cases to a lower court and keeping Trump’s records under wraps for the foreseeable future.
“It’s a pure witch hunt. It’s a hoax, just like the Mueller investigation was a hoax, which I won,” Trump continued. “This is just another hoax.”
“This is purely political. I win at the federal level and we win very decisively so they send it to New York and you know what’s going on with New York — everyone’s leaving and it’s turned out to be a hell hole and they better do something about it because people are leaving New York,” he said.
The president also railed against the decision on Twitter, calling the verdict “unfair” to his administration.
However, Trump’s personal attorney Jay Sekulow, who argued the case, welcomed the decision and said they would continue fighting the matter in the lower courts.
“We are pleased that in the decision issued today the Supreme Court has temporarily blocked both Congress and New York prosecutors from obtaining the president’s financial records,” he wrote in a statement.
“We will now proceed to raise additional constitutional and legal issues in the lower courts,” he added.
Read More:Trump rips Supreme Court ruling, calls New York a ‘hell hole’
