President Donald Trump's lawyers filed two motions in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Tuesday morning attempting to avoid enforcement of a subpoena for the president's tax returns in case they need to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

One motion explicitly dealt with what will happen if the Second Circuit rules against Trump. In that case, the president's lawyers wrote, they are seeking a stay of the court's mandate and of the grand jury subpoena's enforcement. That stay would last until Trump has filed a certiorari petition with the Supreme Court, according to the motion.

The other motion asked the court to extend the current administrative stay on enforcement of the subpoena pending appeal. The papers were filed by William Consovoy of Consovoy McCarthy on behalf of Trump.

The subpoena is connected to an investigation in the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., which has previously indicated it would seek the rapid production of documents from Mazars USA, the president's accounting firm, as soon as a stay expired.

The Manhattan DA's Office has opposed the motions and is expected to file its responses, according to the Trump team's motion papers.

Trump originally sued Vance and Mazars in the Southern District of New York, where U.S. District Senior Judge Victor Marrero dismissed the president's case Oct. 7. Marrero ruled that federal courts should not intervene in this kind of state matter and, in the alternative, that the president's argument for vast immunity from investigation and prosecution lacked merit.

Trump immediately appealed to the Second Circuit, and his lawyers filed his first brief there Oct. 11. Arguments are set for Oct. 23.

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