House Oversight to renew subpoena for Trump’s financial records next Congress

The House Oversight and Reform Committee will renew its subpoena for President Trump’s financial records in the next session of Congress, the panel told a federal appeals court on Monday.

The committee is seeking eight years of records related to Trump and his businesses from the president’s accountants. The subpoena has been tied up in court over a lawsuit from Trump seeking to block lawmakers’ access to the documents.

“If this case has not been resolved before the end of this Congress, the Chairwoman will reissue the subpoena to Mazars at the start of the next Congress,” lawyers for the committee wrote in a court filing. “It remains critically important that the Oversight Committee—and the House more broadly—be able to secure prompt subpoena enforcement without the risk that investigative subjects will thwart its efforts through litigation delay.”

The news is further evidence that House Democrats intend to continue their investigations into Trump long after his term ends next month.

The Supreme Court ruled over the summer that a federal appeals court victory for the House Democrats be overturned and that the lower courts should better balance the interests of both the executive and legislative branches in deciding the various cases related to the congressional investigations into Trump’s finances.

Trump’s lawyers are asking the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to either reject the subpoena entirely or send the case back to the district court for further litigation following the Supreme Court’s ruling.

The House’s legal team has stood by the scope of its subpoena and has asked the D.C. Circuit to quickly resolve any remaining legal issues and rule that the subpoena should be enforced. The committee argued in a legal brief in August that the subpoena would aid in a number of inquiries it has launched during the Trump administration.

“As the Oversight Committee has consistently explained, it is investigating whether President Trump has undisclosed conflicts of interest that may impair his decision-making; whether existing financial disclosure laws should be amended to ensure adequate disclosures; whether President Trump’s lease with the General Services Administration (GSA) for the Trump Old Post Office Hotel has been properly managed; whether legislative reform is needed to prevent Presidential self-dealing in government contracting; and whether President Trump has received unconstitutional emoluments that raise conflicts-of-interest and other concerns for Congress,” the panel said in its brief.

Last week, the House Judiciary Committee made a similar commitment to continue to pursue its subpoena for testimony from former White House counsel Don McGahn.