Remember when the court ruled that our recently retired president must turn over his financial records? So, what could go wrong? It appears that Donald Trump refused to comply with Congress, and the subpoena expired. Unfortunately for him, the Democrats are now more powerful than the party has been for decades, and they haveN locked horns in battle with our ex.
A powerful Democrat-led House committee has gone to a federal judge to force Trump to comply with a subpoena for his financial records. The House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) argued he no longer has a viable claim to withhold his “tax records and related documents,” according to The Guardian. After all, the orange man is no longer in office.
However in another Supreme Court ruling last summer, the Court said Congress could not see many of them. Instead, it indicated that the case should be returned to the lower courts due to “significant separation of powers concerns:”
‘While the committee’s need for the subpoenaed information has not changed, one key fact has: plaintiff Donald J Trump is no longer the president.’
This is actually a test case to find the “scope and limits of Congress’s oversight authority.” The Democrats General Counsel, Douglas Letter, filed a motion in the US District Court for the District of Columbia that read:
‘Because he is no longer the incumbent, the constitutional separation-of-powers principles that were the foundation of the supreme court’s recent decision are significantly diminished.’
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York won a case in the Supreme Court to obtain Trump’s records in March, The Law & Crime reported. The Court’s brief no-nonsense order was his last big hope. So, what did the former White House resident do?
The wayward ex-president refused to give them to Congress. Of sure, his accountants at Mazars USA buried the DA’s office in thousands of documents as it complied with the order:
‘[T]ax returns from January 2011 to August 2019, as well as financial statements, engagement letters and communications related to financial disclosures.’
Since then, the previous POTUS refused to comply with the Oversight Committee’s subpoena. The committee claimed that with Trump forcefully retired, the separation of powers was not applicable. He was originally subpoenaed by Congress when he was a sitting president:’
‘[Congress is not] restricted by grand jury secrecy rules that bar the Manhattan district attorney’s office from releasing the documents except as evidence at a trial.’
Maloney reissued the subpoena after the initial one expired. At the time, she said:
‘For more than 22 months, the committee has been denied key information needed to inform legislative action to address the once-in-a-generation ethics crisis created by former President Trump’s unprecedented conflicts of interests.’
‘The committee’s need for this information – in order to verify key facts and tailor legislative reforms to be as effective as possible – remains just as compelling now as it was when the committee first issued its subpoena.’
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
