Supreme Court Rejects Trump's Immunity Argument Over Taxes.
KEILAR: Breaking news now. The Supreme Court has rejected President Trump's claim that he is completely immune from all criminal prosecution while in office. But today's monumental court rulings do keep the president's financial records private, at least for now, which is one of his big objectives. The justices were looking at two separate cases here. They voted in favor of a New York prosecutor's effort to subpoena Trump's tax returns and other financial materials as part of a wider investigation into whether the president or his business violated state laws. So that investigation can move forward. But records will be shielded from the public under grand jury secrecy rules. Then in a separate ruling, the court determined that Congress could not see the president's financial records right away and they sent this matter down to the lower courts to assess separation of powers concerns. The vote in both cases was 7-2. Chief Justice Roberts wrote both majority opinions. President Trump is blasting those decisions. CNN's Sara Murray is outside of the Supreme Court for us. And, Sara, the president has waged an intense legal battle to keep his financial records secret. Today's ruling seemed to kick that can down the road and at least today, he's going to see that remain secret.</s>SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's true. I think in the short-term, this is actually a victory for President Trump because it makes it exceedingly unlikely that we are going to see any of his financial records before the next presidential election. I mean, even in this</s>KEILAR: Very good point. Sara Murray live for us outside the Supreme Court. All right, let's talk more about of this, these rulings and the president's reaction to it with Joshua Geltzer, Executive Director of the Georgetown Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, and Tony Schwartz, Trump's co-author on The Art of the Deal. He also recently wrote the Sociopath in Chief on Medium. Josh, what are your big takeaways here, because, look, the tax return information is going to remain secret as of today still?</s>JOSHUA GELTZER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GEORGETOWN INSTITUTE CONSTITUTIONAL ADVOCACY AND PROTECTION: That's true. But I think it's worth stepping back here. Today, the Supreme Court fundamentally rejected Trump's anti- democratic vision of a presidency. In all of the cases, the court said no to Trump's fundamental argument, which is that he is shielded so long as he sits in the Oval Office even from investigation, whether that's by state prosecutors or whether that's by Congress. And today was a resounding no to that notion. The court said, you are not wholly immune, fully shielded from this sort of scrutiny.</s>KEILAR: Okay. Tony, I wonder what is going to happen in terms of how the president will receive this. You have spent a lot of time with him. What do you think?</s>TONY SCHWARTZ, DONALD TRUMP'S CO-AUTHOR, THE ART OF THE DEAL: Well, I think Trump, at this point, is like first-time poker player who has put his entire cash into the pot with a terrible hand. He is not bluffing because he thinks he has a better hand. But he is so ignorant about what a hand should be that he doesn't realize that this ruling is just one more wall coming closing in around him. And, you know, it is the Supreme Court that he has made into a majority Republican Supreme Court, once again, ruling in a way that he would find distasteful, as he has in this Twitter torrent he put out since the ruling.</s>KEILAR: You've seen, Tony, how he has operated as a businessman over the years. I mean, his enterprises are no strangers to court, right, to being in the court process and just gumming up the works and playing out the clock. Is that what you see happening here? And in that regard, is that something that is -- can be seen as a win from his perspective?</s>SCHWARTZ: Well, it is definitely a win for him not to have to release his taxes because we already know from The New York Times what they're going to show, which is that he's cheated in multiple ways on his taxes. And, by the way, that piece I wrote, is called the Psychopath in Chief on Medium, not the Sociopath in Chief, and this is why the psychopath is why he does what he does. He has no conscience and so breaking the law for him is no big deal. It is a win not to have to reveal his taxes before the election assuming that's what happens but it is not a win to have the attorney general in New York or the Southern District look at his tax returns and be able to consider them as part of a criminal indictment which, of course, won't happen before the election. And assuming he loses, which is what I'm certainly hoping for, and I am sort of assuming at the moment, if he loses, he's criminally liable. And here is the thing that I think could happen there. I think it gives the -- I think it provides a mechanism for Trump to feel compelled if it reaches a certain point or at least interested in resigning because he is liable for crimes that happened during this period of time once he leaves office. And he'd love to have a way out of that. And one potential way is to get pardoned in some way as a deal to get rid of him, as Gerald Ford did for Nixon and that, to me, could happen.</s>KEILAR: Okay. I have not seen the reporting on that, I will say, but certainly we are all entitled to our theories, I guess. Tony, I will say.</s>SCHWARTZ: What</s>KEILAR: I don't know. I mean, look, it's a possibility. But I guess anything is possible, right? Josh, this is the expectation. Tony just said it. Nothing is going to be seen in the way of tax returns before the election. Is that your expectation?</s>GELTZER: I think it's possible but I don't think we should accept that it has to be that way. Cy Vance, the prosecutor from New York, had the best day he could possibly have had at the Supreme Court today. He got everything he asked for on the issue that went up to the Supreme Court, a wholesale rejection of Trump's immunity defense. So now, yes, it does go back to a lower court. And in that lower court, Trump's lawyers can raise narrower objections and complaints. Indeed, the chief justice in his majority opinion helpfully spells out what those are. But I take that to be a guide that lower courts should resolve those quickly. I think that should be our expectation as the American people. The lower courts move quickly here. The big issue, the big question has been answered by the nation's highest court. The smaller stuff should be resolved but it should be resolved quickly. And I don't think we should accept that courts need to move so slowly that the American people and even just the state prosecutors don't get the answers that they long have been waiting for.</s>KEILAR: Tony, how do you think he views two of the -- the two justices that he nominated to the Supreme Court that voting against him?</s>SCHWARTZ: Anybody who says anything that is contradictory to Trump is an enemy. He sees the world entirely in terms of black and white. He demands loyalty but doesn't give loyalty. And the moment you break out of the pack, you're gone. But, look, this is why -- I don't know how you'll feel about me saying this, but he is at a point where all around him, previous allies are beginning to fall. Look how many Republican senators are not going to the Republican convention. That's a pretty big statement. Essentially, Trump is a person who has been friendless all his life and will allow or prompt these relationships to die because of his anger at their failure to follow his every order.</s>KEILAR: Yes. You know, it is interesting to see that a lot of Republicans are not going to the convention. So we will see how all of this plays out from the president's perspective. Tony, thank you. Josh, thank you for your perspective as well. And we have some more breaking news from Dr. Anthony Fauci, show says the transmission of this virus is, quote, really striking. I'm going to speak live with someone who has been feeling symptoms now for months. Plus, hospital workers in Texas join me on how overwhelmed they are as the number of patients keeps climbing.