President Trump and his businesses are suing House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings to block a congressional subpoena to obtain the president’s financial records.
“House Democrats are singularly obsessed with finding something they can use to damage the President politically,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Last week, Cummings, D-Md., subpoenaed Trump’s longtime accountant Mazars USA for 10 years of the president’s financial records.
“The Committee has full authority to investigate whether the President may have engaged in illegal conduct before and during his tenure in office, to determine whether he has undisclosed conflicts of interest that may impair his ability to make impartial policy decisions, to assess whether he is complying with the Emoluments Clauses of the Constitution, and to review whether he has accurately reported his finances to the Office of Government Ethics and other federal entities,” Cummings wrote in an April 12 memo to members of the committee.
Cummings originally requested the information from Mazars in March after Trump’s former longtime attorney Michael Cohen testified that the president misrepresented his assets. Cummings asked for Mazars to provide financial reports and communications between Trump and the accounting firm.
The lawsuit escalates a standoff between Trump and Democrats in the House.
In the filing, Trump’s lawyers argued Congress only has the authority to conduct oversight and investigations in order to enact legislation.
“Investigations are legitimate only insofar as they further some legitimate legislative purpose,” they said, also accusing Cummings of overstepping his authority by “assuming the powers of the Department of Justice.”
