President Donald Trump lashed out angrily Thursday following two Supreme Court rulings regarding his financial records.
Trump offered no specific insight into the particulars of the cases, which were not decided in his favor, instead painting one broadly as “a political prosecution.” In a second tweet, he claimed without basis that “Courts in the past have given ‘broad deference’. BUT NOT ME!”
The president then went quiet for roughly 10 minutes before erupting in a stream-of-consciousness rant featuring all his usual boogeymen.
The rant was Trump’s response to the court’s decisions in Trump v. Vance and Trump v. Mazars USA, LLP. The court rejected his arguments that the president is immune from investigation and subpoena by both Congress and state grand juries.
But the records being subpoenaed ― which could reveal his tax returns and potential crimes including tax evasion, money laundering and executive branch disclosure violations ― are almost certain to remain hidden from the public until after the election. While running for president, Trump repeatedly promised to release the documents voluntarily, something he has not done.
Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh ― the two conservative justices Trump appointed this term ― ruled with the majority in both cases.
Trump’s sought to redirect attention from his current predicament onto “a totally corrupt previous Administration” that “GOT CAIGHT [sic]” in “the biggest political crime and scandal in U.S. history,” echoing his previous baseless claims that President Barack Obama committed “treason” by spying on the Trump campaign.
Trump eventually used his tweets to dismiss the cases entirely.
He also deleted and re-posted the tweets later Thursday, with the spelling errors corrected. A screenshot of the originals are below:
Paul Blumenthal contributed to this report.