The Department of Justice took Donald Trump’s side this week when arguing over Congressional subpoenas for his financial records.
According to Roll Call, DOJ lawyers argued to Supreme Court justices that lawmakers must meet a higher bar when seeking a sitting president’s personal records.
“The cases, set for March 31 oral argument, center on subpoenas from three House committees to accounting firm Mazars USA, Deutsche Bank and Capital One Financial Corp. House Democrats are seeking eight years of Trump’s financial and tax records,” Roll Call’s Todd Ruger writes.
According to the Trump administration, the subpoenas pose “a serious risk of harassing the President and distracting him from his constitutional duties.” The DOJ backed that assertion by saying Congress did not meet the requirements which should be “set forth with specificity” and that the information sought should be “demonstrably critical to the legitimate legislative purpose.”
“The four reasons offered in support of the Mazars subpoena betray an impermissible law-enforcement objective, and the boilerplate statement that the subpoena furthers ‘multiple laws and legislative proposals’ is far too vague to enable, much less withstand, meaningful scrutiny of its legitimacy,” the Justice Department wrote in its brief.
