A federal judge has expedited President Trump’s lawsuit against the House Oversight and Reform Committee over its subpoena of Trump’s accountants for his financial information.
The decision to expedite the case could bode well for House Democrats as they undertake other efforts to compel the president to turn over financial records and documents related to his business dealings, and poorly for any administration attempts to stall investigations past the 2020 election.
Trump sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the subpoena. On Thursday, Judge Amit Mehta expedited the suit, telling Congress and the president, who is represented in the case by his personal attorneys rather than White House counsel, that he has enough information from both sides to rule on the case.
The central question to Trump’s challenge of the subpoena is whether the congressional committee’s subpoena of Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA LLP, is a valid exercise of legislative power.
Mehta will now hold a hearing on the case May 14, after which he will decide the full case and weigh Trump’s motion to block Democrats’ request.
The decision is “favorable to the House because they have a better assurance of victory in this case than in others,” said Charles Tiefer, former deputy general counsel for the House and a law professor at the University of Baltimore.
Tiefer cautioned that the expedited schedule might not necessarily tip whether Mehta could rule one way or the other, but added the president has the “heavy lifting” in this battle, particularly since he is “asking the court to go against the House.”
But Gene Rossi, a former federal prosecutor who spent 11 years in the Justice Department’s tax division, said Mehta’s decision to fast-track the case indicates he is not inclined to side with Trump.
“I fail to see the argument that the president has, so the judge, in making the expedited ruling, probably feels that this is a case that could be decided without much argument,” Rossi said. “In sum, what he’s saying is this is a slam dunk decision.”
Since taking control of the House and gaining subpoena power, Democrats have vowed to use their oversight responsibilities to probe the president, his business dealings, finances, and administration policies.
But Trump said he will rebuff their efforts and fight “all the subpoenas,” setting up a legal showdown with his political opponents.
In addition to issuing a subpoena to the president’s accountants for his financial records, Trump and Democrats are also on the brink of a legal fight over his tax returns, which the House Ways and Means Committee is seeking from the Treasury Department. The House Intelligence and Financial Services Committee also issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and other financial institutions for records related to Trump’s business dealings.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., is weighing whether to file his own suit in an attempt to compel the IRS to turn over Trump’s last six years of tax records, or issue a subpoena before taking the matter to court.
The current battle for his accounting records, however, could indicate whether other disputes involving congressional subpoenas for Trump’s records are likely to be successful.
“A House victory in this case would surely foreshadow success for the House Ways and Means Committee seeking Trump tax returns,” Tiefer said. “It cannot be imagined that the House will get financial records from Trump’s accountant and yet be denied them from the IRS.”
Still, Tiefer said that a loss for the House in this case wouldn’t preclude a victory for the Ways and Means Committee, as it has special authority under federal statute to request tax records.
“That would distinguish this case from that one,” he said.
While the document disputes could have set the stage for a protracted legal battle, Mehta’s decision to fast-track the case makes it more likely the matter will be wrapped up before the next presidential election.
“The judge’s decision in this case to engage in an expedited process is not good news at all for the president’s attempt to push this beyond November 2020,” Rossi said.
Tiefer agreed. “[Mehta] couldn’t have expressed a desire to move faster if he put an emergency light on the top of his car and broadcast a police siren,” he said.
