NEW YORK (Reuters) Manhattans district attorney said on Monday he might have grounds to investigate President Donald Trump and his businesses for tax fraud, as he seeks to persuade a federal appeals court to let him obtain Trumps tax returns.

Lawyers for District Attorney Cyrus Vance made the assertion in a filing with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, four days before it considers Trumps request to block Vances August 2019 subpoena for the tax returns.

The lawyers said the mountainous public allegations of misconduct, including misstatements about business properties, could justify a grand jury probe into possible tax fraud, insurance fraud and falsifying business records.

Even if the grand jury were testing the truth of public allegations alone, such reports, taken together, fully justify the scope of the grand jury subpoena, Vances lawyers wrote, without accusing Trump or his businesses of wrongdoing.

Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for Trump, declined to comment on the filing.

Among the reports Vances office cited were allegations that Trump routinely sent lenders financial statements that inflated his assets and omitted debt-laden properties, and from 2004 to 2014 paid $400 million in cash for five houses, eight golf courses and a winery despite billions of dollars in debt.

They also included the case of Trumps former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to campaign finance and other charges, and testified to Congress it was common for the Trump Organization to falsify records when seeking loans.