UPDATE 2-Trump tax return subpoena justified by 'mountainous' allegations -Manhattan prosecutor
(Adds comment from Trump lawyer, details from filing, background, byline)
By Jonathan Stempel
Sept 21 (Reuters) - Manhattan's district attorney on Monday said the "mountainous" allegations of misconduct linked to U.S. President Donald Trump and his businesses justified enforcing a subpoena for his tax returns and other financial records.
Lawyers for District Attorney Cyrus Vance made the argument in a filing with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, four days before it considers Trump's request to block the August 2019 subpoena to his accounting firm Mazars USA.
Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for Trump, declined to comment.
Trump, a Republican, has said the subpoena from Vance, a Democrat, for eight years of his personal and corporate tax returns in connection with a criminal probe into his businesses was "wildly overbroad" and issued in bad faith to harass him.
The president made that argument after the U.S. Supreme Court in July rejected his earlier claim of immunity from criminal investigations while in the White House.
Trump is now appealing U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero's Aug. 20 ruling allowing the subpoena's enforcement.
But lawyers for Vance said Trump's arguments, including that the Mazars subpoena largely copied an earlier subpoena from Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, were "recycled" from when he claimed immunity, and that he deserved no special treatment as president.
The lawyers called Marrero's review "meticulous," after Trump had accused the judge of dismissively rejecting his arguments as a "back-door" means to immunity.
Vance's lawyers also justified the subpoena by pointing to "numerous" reports of possible financial improprieties involving the Trump Organization and its affiliates.
These included New York Attorney General Letitia James' probe into whether the company overstated asset values to obtain loans and tax benefits, and the guilty plea of Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen to campaign finance and other charges.
"As the office represented to the Supreme Court, 'we would have been remiss not to follow up,'" Vance's lawyers wrote.
"A mountainous record of criminal convictions and public allegations of misconduct ... confirms the reasonableness of the Mazars subpoena's timeframe and its specific document requests," they added.
Oral arguments are set for Sept. 25 before a panel of three judges, all appointed by Democratic presidents.
Though the appeal was fast-tracked, it is unlikely the public will know what's in Trump's tax returns before the Nov. 3 election.
Vance began his probe after news that Cohen made hush money payments before the 2016 election to keep two women quiet about claimed sexual encounters with Trump, which he denies. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Karen Freifeld; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Tom Brown)
