WASHINGTON — President Trump on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to put on hold an appeals court ruling that Trump’s accountant must immediately turn over tax records to a New York state prosecutor, setting up a decision from the high court that could come before Election Day.

The court could allow the immediate enforcement of a subpoena issued by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. or block it temporarily. Even if the court rules against Trump, however, the records would normally not be made public but turned over to Vance’s office.

This is the second time the records issue has reached the high court.

The court previously prevented the records from being turned over while the case proceeded.

The justices in July rejected Trump’s argument that he is effectively immune from investigation while he holds office. Trump’s two Supreme Court nominees, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, joined that decision.

But the high court returned the Vance case and another, similar case involving records sought by Congress to lower courts to allow Trump’s attorneys to make additional arguments.

In August, a district court judge rejected Trump’s attorneys’ renewed efforts to block Vance’s access to the records. And last week, the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan agreed, saying the records should be turned over. But the rulings have been on hold while the president’s attorneys appeal.

Vance is seeking more than eight years of the Republican president’s personal and corporate tax records as part of an investigation his office is conducting.

Associated Press

Trump again attacks Fauci’s guidance as infections climb

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s long-fraught relationship with Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease specialist, ruptured again this week in an ugly public dispute.

Trump on Tuesday responded to Fauci’s warnings that the president’s decision to resume campaign rallies this week was ‘‘very troublesome’’ by mocking him in a tweet that unfavorably compared his medical guidance to his errant ceremonial first pitch at a Washington Nationals’ game in July.

‘‘Actually, Tony’s pitching arm is far more accurate than his prognostications,’’ Trump wrote, erroneously suggesting that Fauci’s advice in the early days of the pandemic that the public need not wear face masks meant that the doctor was playing down the virus.

The president’s nasty personal attack offered more evidence of the large gulf between the government’s top two public messengers on the pandemic, who have consistently contradicted one another.

Trump has not met individually with Fauci in more than a month, White House aides said, keeping tabs mostly by watching his appearances on cable news shows.

The latest tensions, though, illustrate a conundrum for Trump, who has sought to win public confidence with a relatively quick rebound from his own coronavirus diagnosis that forced him into a three-night stay at Walter Reed National Medical Center this month.

Though he has continued to denigrate Fauci, his campaign offered an acknowledgment of the public’s high regard for the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases by including an out-of-context clip of him in a recent advertisement — a move that angered Fauci.

Fauci, 79, said in a statement Sunday that he had never endorsed a political candidate in his nearly five decades of public service. In an interview with the Daily Beast on Monday, Fauci demanded the Trump campaign remove the clip. ‘‘By doing this against my will they are, in effect, harassing me,’’ he said.

Washington Post

Biden addresses idea of high court packing: ‘I’m not a fan’

WASHINGTON — Joe Biden says he is “not a fan’’ of adding seats to the Supreme Court, after weeks of avoiding questions about the idea that’s been pushed by progressives and used by Republicans to attack him.

“I’ve already spoken on — I’m not a fan of court packing, but I don’t want to get off on that whole issue. I want to keep focused,’’ the Democratic presidential nominee said in an interview Monday with Cincinnati’s WKRC.

Biden argued that the focus should remain on President Trump and Republicans’ efforts to push through Amy Coney Barrett as a replacement for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the Nov. 3 election.

“That’s the court-packing the public should be focused on,’’ he said.

Associated Press

Wisconsin absentee case may be headed to court

MADISON, Wis. — Democrats and their allies said Tuesday they will ask the Supreme Court to decide whether absentee ballots in battleground Wisconsin that are received up to six days after the election can be counted — a move being fought by Republicans who have opposed other attempts across the country to expand voting.

Democrats argue that the flood of absentee ballots and other challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic make it necessary to extend the period in which ballots can be counted.

Wisconsin is one of the nation’s hot spots for COVID-19, with hospitalizations treating a record high number of patients with the disease.

Republicans oppose the extension, saying voters have plenty of opportunities to cast their ballot by the close of polls on Election Day and that the rules should not be changed so close to the election.

A federal judge in September sided with Democrats and said ballots postmarked by Election Day, Nov. 3, could be counted if they’re received by Nov. 9.

Associated Press