President Donald Trump and the Trump Organization are suing House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings in order to prevent House Democrats from getting the President’s financial records from his accounting firm Mazars.
Democrats had previously issued a “friendly subpoena” for 10 years’ worth of Trump’s finances and the President’s lawsuit aims to block them from obtaining them. It is the first in what is likely to be a series of legal battles between House Democrats, Trump, his businesses and the White House, CNN writes.
Trump’s lawyers argued in Monday’s lawsuit that Democrats were “singularly obsessed with finding something they can use to damage the president politically.” But Cummings rejected the legal complaint as mere “political talking points” rather than “reasoned legal brief” that, he said, contained a plethora of false information.
“The President has a long history of trying to use baseless lawsuits to attack his adversaries, but there is simply no valid legal basis to interfere with this duly authorized subpoena from Congress,” Cummings said. “The White House is engaged in unprecedented stonewalling on all fronts, and they have refused to produce a single document or witness to the Oversight Committee during this entire year.”
House Democrats have also issued subpoenas to nine financial institutions as part of an investigation into the President’s finances. Trump’s lawyers have responded by telling the Treasury Department and several companies that they should not provide the information.
The House Judiciary Committee recently issued a subpoena for the unredacted version of the special counsel’s report and underlying evidence, while House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal has requested six years’ worth of Trump’s personal and business tax returns. Treasury has an April 23 deadline to hand over the documents.
A personal attorney for Trump, Jaw Sekulow, called the subpoenas “presidential harassment” and said they would consider action against other subpoenas “as circumstances warrant.”
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