Supreme Court says Manhattan prosecutors can obtain Trump's financial records
09 July 2020
President Trump’s banks and accounting firms must turn over his financial records to Manhattan prosecutors, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
Why it matters: The ruling is a stinging loss for Trump, who has fought relentlessly to keep these records secret.
The backdrop: Manhattan prosecutor Cy Vance subpoenaed 8 years' worth of the president's tax returns as part of an investigation into hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election.
- Trump challenged those subpoenas as unlawful, but the court rejected that argument, ordering financial institutions to comply with Vance's subpoenas.
What's next: Vance subpoenaed those records as part of a secret grand jury process, so he likely cannot make them public before the election.
- The Supreme Court will also rule today on separate subpoenas issued by a trio of House committees.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.