PRESIDENT Donald Trump has gone to court to block a subpoena probing the finances of his businesses.
He filed in federal court today in Washington, DC, arguing that the House Oversight Committee “has no legislative purpose” to examine those records.
Trump hopes to prevent his accounting firm, Mazars USA, from complying with the subpoena issued earlier this month by Rep. Elijah Cummings, the head of the panel.
The New York Post reports that the filing alleges that: “Democrats are using their new control of congressional committees to investigate every aspect of President Trump’s personal finances, businesses, and even his family.
“Instead of working with the President to pass bipartisan legislation that would actually benefit Americans, House Democrats are singularly obsessed with finding something they can use to damage the President politically.”
Cummings said Mazars, a tax and accounting firm, asked for a subpoena before it would turn over the Trump financial information.
“They have told us that they will provide the information pretty much when they have a subpoena,” Cummings said at the time. “And we’ll get them a subpoena.”
In his March 20 letter, Cummings cited testimony from Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and fixer.
Cohen told lawmakers in February that the president inflated financial statements to get loans, including providing incorrect financial statements to Deutsche Bank to get money, so he could put a bid on the Buffalo Bills.
At the same time, Cohen, who turned over three years of financial statements to the committee, said Trump undervalued his assets to reduce his real estate taxes.
Cummings asked for financial records dating back to January 1, 2009.
Slamming Cohen as a “felon who has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress,” the Trump filing says Cummings is on a political fishing expedition because his action “lacks a legitimate legislative purpose.”
The court papers add: “There is no possible legislation at the end of this tunnel; indeed, the Chairman does not claim otherwise.
“Its goal is to expose Plaintiffs’ private financial information for the sake of exposure, with the hope that it will turn up something that Democrats can use as a political tool against the President now and in the 2020 election.”
A version of this article first appeared in the New York Post
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