The Trump family’s personal bankers, faced with a choice between alienating a client who holds the world’s most powerful office or snubbing lawmakers armed with subpoenas, caught a last-minute break from the unlikeliest of places: a federal lawsuit by the president himself.

The claim, filed by President Trump, three of his children, and his companies in federal court in New York City on April 29, effectively shifts responsibility to the judiciary for deciding whether the legislative branch’s constitutional duty of overseeing the chief executive includes the right to see his financial records.