In a major showdown over presidential powers, U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared divided over President Donald Trump’s bid to prevent congressional Democrats from obtaining his financial records but seemed more open toward a New York prosecutor’s attempt to secure similar records, Reuters reports.
The court’s conservative majority signaled concern about improper “harassment” of Trump – who is seeking re-election on Nov. 3 – by three Democratic-led House of Representatives committees seeking his records. In the New York case, the conservative justices joined the court’s liberals in indicating skepticism toward broad arguments by Trump’s lawyer for complete immunity from criminal investigation for a sitting president.
All the subpoenas at the heart of the court’s back-to-back teleconference arguments that lasted about three hours and 20 minutes were issued to third parties – an accounting firm and two banks – and not to the Republican president himself, though he sued to block them.
There is a possibility the court will not simply allow or disallow enforcement of the subpoenas but rather impose tighter standards for issuing subpoenas for the personal records of a sitting president and send the matter back to lower courts to reconsider. This course of action could delay an ultimate decision on releasing the records until after the election.
The court’s 5-4 majority includes two justices appointed by Trump.
Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts could play a potential tie-breaking role in shaping the rulings. Roberts asked questions suggesting skepticism about unchecked subpoena power when applied to a sitting president but also concern about a president evading scrutiny altogether.
Trump, unlike other recent presidents, has declined to release his tax returns and other financial records that could shed light on his net worth and the activities of his family real-estate company, the Trump Organization. The content of these records remains an enduring mystery of his presidency.
Two of the three cases before the justices involved House subpoenas seeking Trump’s financial records from his longtime accounting firm Mazars LLP, Deutsche Bank AG and Capital One Financial Corp. The third involved a subpoena to Mazars for similar information, including tax returns, in a grand jury investigation into Trump conducted by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, a Democrat. Trump lost all three cases in lower courts.
Conservative and liberal justices asked a lawyer for the House, Doug Letter, to explain why the subpoenas were not simply harassment and whether Congress should be limited in issuing subpoenas so as to not distract a president or frustrate his official duties.
Conservative Justice Samuel Alito said under the House’s argument there would be “nothing preventing the harassment of a president.”
Liberal justices seemed more sympathetic toward the House but raised concerns about an unfettered ability by lawmakers to subpoena a president’s personal records.
Justices disagreed with arguments by Trump’s lawyers that the subpoenas targeting him were unprecedented, instead pointing to the 1970s investigations involving President Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal and a 1990s sexual misconduct lawsuit against President Bill Clinton. In two major cases, the Supreme Court was unanimous in refusing to shield those two presidents.
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