NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) – The top federal prosecutor in Manhattan said the US will join a legal fight between Donald Trump and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr over the president’s tax and other financial records.

The office of Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney in Manhattan, said Monday (Sep 30) in a letter to the judge overseeing the case that the government intends to participate in the litigation and will file court papers on Wednesday (Oct 2).

The move suggests the US may join in support of Trump. Berman’s office last week asked for a temporary halt to the enforcement of a state subpoena to Mazars USA, Trump’s accountants, while it considered whether to participate.

Vance wants the documents as part of a probe of whether the Trump Organisation falsified business records related to hush-money payments to porn actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claim to have had sexual relationships with Trump.

US District Judge Victor Marrero gave the government until Monday to say whether it would seek to join the case.

“We’re in the very early stage of wanting to review materials,” Solomon Shinerock, a prosecutor in Vance’s office, told Marrero in a hearing last week.

“There’s a whole range of other financial records that we’re seeking here for reasons we can’t get into here.” Trump claims broad immunity from criminal investigation into him, his companies and the people around him. His team has asked Marrero to block the subpoena.

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