In this Sept 21, 2020 photo, former US President Donald Trump speaks to the media prior to departing from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, as he travels to Ohio. (SAUL LOEB / AFP)

In a significant defeat for former US president Donald Trump, the Supreme Court on Monday declined to step in to halt the turnover of his tax records to a New York state prosecutor.

Trump's tax records are not supposed to become public as part of a criminal investigation by prosecutors

The court's action is the apparent culmination of a lengthy legal battle that had already reached the highest court once before.

Trump's tax records are not supposed to become public as part of a criminal investigation by prosecutors, but the top court's action is a blow to Trump because he has long fought on so many fronts to keep his tax records shielded from view. The investigation that the records are part of could also become an issue for Trump in his life after the presidency.

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The one-sentence order with no dissents brought a swift and lengthy response from Trump. In a statement, Trump blasted prosecutors and said the "Supreme Court never should have let this 'fishing expedition' happen, but they did". The Republican claimed the investigation is politically motivated by Democrats in "a totally Democrat location, New York City and State".And he said he would "fight on" and that "We will win!"

The Supreme Court waited months to act in the case. The last of the written briefs in the case was filed on Oct 19. But a court that includes three Trump appointees waited through the election, Trump's challenge to his defeat and a month after Trump left office before issuing its order.

The court offered no explanation for the delay, and the legal issue before the justices did not involve whether Trump was due any special deference because he was president.

The court's order is a win for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr, who has been seeking Trump's tax records since 2019 as part of an investigation. Vance, a Democrat, had subpoenaed the records from the Mazars accounting firm that has long done work for Trump and his businesses. Mazars has said it would comply with the subpoena, but Trump sued to block the records' release.

Vance's office had said it would be free to enforce the subpoena and obtain the records in the event the Supreme Court declined to step in and halt the records' turnover, but it was unclear when that might happen. In a three-word statement on Monday, Vance said only: "The work continues."

The court's action on Monday wasn't the only defeat for Trump. The court also declined to get involved in a handful of cases related to the 2020 election.

The records Vance has been after are more than eight years of Trump's personal and corporate tax records. Vance has disclosed little about what prompted him to seek them. In one court filing last year, however, prosecutors said they were justified in demanding the records because of public reports of "possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization".

Part of the probe involves payments to two women-porn actress Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal-to keep them quiet during the 2016 presidential campaign about alleged extramarital affairs with Trump. Trump has denied the affairs.

July decision

In July, the justices in a 7-2 ruling rejected Trump's argument that the president is immune from investigation while he holds office or that a prosecutor must show a greater need than normal to obtain the tax records. Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, whom Trump nominated to the Supreme Court, joined that decision.

It was issued before Trump's third nominee, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, replaced the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the court.

As part of its July decision, the court returned the Vance case and a similar case involving records sought by Congress to lower courts. And the court prevented the records from being turned over while the cases proceeded.

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Since the Supreme Court's ruling, in the Vance case, Trump's attorneys made additional arguments that his tax records should not be turned over, but they lost again in federal court in New York and on appeal. It was those rulings that Trump had sought to put on hold.

Agencies via Xinhua and Ai Heping in New York contributed to this story.