Trump sues House Oversight chair to block financial records subpoena

by Laura Clawson

Daily Kos Staff

Monday, Apr. 22, 2019 Monday, Apr. 22, 2019 at 6:45:59am PDT

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 27: Committee chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) speaks to members of the media after Michael Cohen, former attorney and fixer for President Donald Trump, testified before the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill February 27, 2019 in Washington, DC. Last year Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine for tax evasion, making false statements to a financial institution, unlawful excessive campaign contributions and lying to Congress as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential elections. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) — House Oversight Chair Elijah Cummings

Donald Trump is taking his fight to keep his finances a secret to court. Trump is suing to block a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee to Mazars, an accounting firm Trump uses.

“Democrats are singularly obsessed with finding something they can use to damage the President politically,” according to Trump’s court filing, itself a part of Trump being singularly obsessed with keeping his finances a secret even as he profits from the presidency.

House Oversight Committee Chair Elijah Cummings issued a subpoena to Mazars last week after he had requested Trump’s financial information, and after the firm had indicated it would comply with a subpoena. Cummings informed members of his committee that he was seeking “to determine whether [Trump] 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.”