A federal appeals court says Manhattan's district attorney can enforce a subpoena seeking Donald Trump's tax returns and other financial records for a criminal probe into the US president and his businesses.
In a 3-0 decision, the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan rejected the Republican president's claims that the subpoena was overly broad and amounted to political harassment by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, a Democrat.
"The President has a 'difficult' burden and an 'unenviable' task: to make plausible allegations that could persuade the court that the subpoena that has been served on him could not possibly serve any investigative purpose that the grand jury could legitimately be pursuing," it wrote.
"His complaint fails to do so."
Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for Mr Trump, said the president will appeal to the US Supreme Court and seek a stay against enforcing the subpoena.
Mr Vance has agreed not to enforce it for 12 days so long as Mr Trump appeals quickly.
The Supreme Court has already ruled once in the bitter year-long dispute, having in July rejected Mr Trump's argument he was immune from criminal probes while in the White House.
But the court said Mr Trump could raise other objections to the grand jury subpoena to his long-time accounting firm Mazars USA for his corporate and personal tax returns from 2011 to 2018.
Mr Vance issued the subpoena in August 2019.
Mr Trump is seeking re-election on 3 November.
The unsigned decision upheld an August 20 ruling by US District Judge Victor Marrero in Manhattan.
It followed a September 28 report in The New York Times that Mr Trump had paid just $1050 (AUD) in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017, and no income taxes in 10 of the prior 15 years, reflecting "chronic" losses he used to avoid paying taxes.
Mr Trump has rejected findings from the Times report, tweeting that he had paid many millions of dollars in taxes but was entitled to depreciation and tax credits.
He has long resisted making his tax returns public unlike his six immediate predecessors occupying the White House.
