Trump Urges Court to Throw Out Congressional Subpoena to Mazars

[DonViejo]

Source: Bloomberg


By Joe Schneider
April 5, 2021, 9:59 PM EDT

Former President Donald Trump urged a judge to throw out a Congressional subpoena for his financial records, calling it unconstitutional and unenforceable.

The former president asked a federal judge in Washington Monday for summary judgment -- a ruling in his favor without a trial -- in a House Oversight lawsuit seeking an order to force Mazars USA, Trump’s accounting firm, to turn over the documents.

“The Mazars subpoena remains a demand for the president’s information, based on president-specific justifications, subject to president-specific defenses,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in their request for the summary judgment. “The committee’s justifications concerning the Trump Presidency cratered once he stopped being president, but the separation-of-powers concerns with these sorts of subpoenas did not.”

The fight over the subpoena reached the Supreme Court, which ruled that congressional subpoenas seeking the president’s personal information must be “no broader than reasonably necessary” and ordered lower courts to determine whether the House’s request met that standard.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-06/trump-urges-court-to-throw-out-congressional-subpoena-to-mazars

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. trump wants to lose another lawsuit

[Walleye]

2. But he says he still is the president

[Jay25]

3. Great point!

[nuxvomica]

6. Just like he's rich to the banks, poor to tax collectors

It's the same ploy.

[oasis]

4. K and R

[ancianita]

5. He's asking that the First Branch's tool of oversight be discounted upon request by a president

or ex-president who wants to decide what's "reasaonably necessary" when Congress couldn't even have reasonably gotten this far without showing probable cause.

[forgotmylogin]

7. So...they can't have his records while he's in office...

and the question "becomes moot" once he's out of office.

How does he in any way remain above the law?

[bucolic_frolic]

8. 45 fast-tracked a lot of lawsuits to SCOTUS, but ours languished at a snail's pace

He's saying basically I out-lasted you, this is no longer relevant because I'm not president anymore.

He still fears something powerful.

[Evolve Dammit]

9. Delay, obstruct, lie, threaten. They must be really incriminating for the Orange Loser, nt

[bluestarone]

10. You've sat on this long enough SC!

The time is NOW! release them!

[Happy Hoosier]

11. This argument must not succeed.

It boils down to: The President can ignore Congressional Subpoenas while President, and they are moot after he is President, essentially placing him above Congressional oversight.

[ScratchCat]

12. Unfortunately

Trump and his attorneys are probably right here. Its not fair, but their point is likely legally sound. The only possibility - and I doubt this happens - is that the court opines that it was Trump's delay that caused this issue to not be resolved before Trump left office, therefore the court wont nix the subpoena. But at the end of the day, The House's justification was that Trump was POTUS.

[CaptainTruth]

13. I think you're probably correct. Thankfully this doesn't affect other subpoenas.

IMHO this sets a bad precedent for Congressional oversight, if a POTUS can just refuse to comply & stall & get away with it, without ever turning over the subpoenaed materials.

However, no Congressional subpoena could put Shitler in prison, but subpoenas from prosecutors can, & those have been enforced & documents have been turned over.

[onenote]

15. Not necessarily.

Trump's argument has been, and is, that the purpose of the Congressional subpoena was "enforcement" of current ethics laws and rules. But the lower courts agreed with the committees that the subpoenas were intended to serve a legislative purpose. The Supreme Court agreed with the lower court, but only to a point. According to the Supreme Court, when a subpoena is relates to a President's records, even private records not subject to executive privilege, care must be taken to ensure that the subpoena is not overbroad.

Interestingly, the very fact that Trump is no longer president undercuts some of the Court's rationale -- concerns about the subpoena power being used by Congress to "harass" a sitting president aren't the same when the president is out of office. If anything, the court may conclude that, following the reasoning of the Supreme Court, the separation of powers concerns that required the remand have diminished to the point where the subpoena should be enforced as a means of Congress acquiring information that would allow it to consider future legislation governing presidential finances and ethics.

[Aviation Pro]

14. Look over there, fuckturd....

...yes, way the fuck over there, that's where you can fuck off, citizen.

[twodogsbarking]

16. Hopefully the day will come when

police raid Mar a Lago and drag Trump to the patrol car while the employees all cheer.

[efhmc]

17. They clapped when he and hoochie momma went to Easter service in Palm Beach.

[DENVERPOPS]

18. His lawyers

continue to throw pasta at the wall, in hopes something will finally stick, before the hammer comes down on Trump and his evil spawn.

[EndlessWire]

20. It's just a normal motion

that happens all the time. You never know, and if you don't try, maybe you could be accused of malpractice.

I have no opinion as to the merit of the argument. I hope he gets nailed. I want nothing but bad stuff to happen to Trump. He's evil, the Trump Party is evil, and we'd all be better off without him. Let him move to Russia. Maybe he can help run the war they are trying to start. Then he can have bunker accommodations.

[mahina]

19. Warmer, warmer, red hot.

Here’s hoping he loses this too.