It feels uniquely Trump-ian for the sitting president of the United States to sue the chairman of the House Oversight Committee because they’re trying to… wait for it… exercise oversight of the president’s finances, which could easily have an impact on national policy. Former longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen slammed the lawsuit the Trump team filed against Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) this week, completely dismissing its legitimacy. Trump is seeking to have a judge block Cummings from accessing his financial records via his longtime accounting firm Mazars USA, and in the process attacked Cohen’s credibility on account of him publicizing fraud allegations that helped spark Cummings’s subpoena.
On apparent behalf of himself and Cohen, the former Trump’s fixer’s lawyer Lanny Davis shared:
‘We trust that the courts will deal with all issues fairly on the merits. We won’t dignify the personal accusations in the filings except to say that frivolous things said by frivolous people don’t deserve a serious response. The reasons for Mr. Trump’s desperate attempt to prevent his tax returns from being made public… is no mystery. Does anyone doubt he has something to hide?’
During his public testimony before Cummings’s committee, Cohen specifically pointed to Trump’s tax returns as a potential source for further information about his claims of insurance, tax, and bank fraud. As Cohen described it, Trump repeatedly inflated his net worth in dealings with potential partners like Deutsche Bank at one point when he was trying to get financial backing to buy the Buffalo Bills, a deal that ended up not going through.
In the time since, statements purporting to outline Trump’s financial standing have emerged that Mazars USA helped prepare even though they contained some of those at best gross exaggerations, albeit with a disclaimer that they did not vouch for the numbers inside. Still, Cummings wants answers, in addition to the concurrently running House Financial Services Committee demand for Trump’s tax returns from the IRS.
Trump has lambasted not just Cohen but all of this. His team’s lawsuit against Cummings whines, for instance, that Democrats are “singularly obsessed with finding something they can use to damage the president politically” and just hope to scrutinize Trump “for the sake of exposure, with the hope that it will turn up something that Democrats can use as a political tool now and in the 2020 election.”
Cummings responded straightforwardly to the president’s team’s baseless reaching, asserting:
‘There is simply no valid legal basis to interfere with this duly authorized subpoena from Congress. This complaint reads more like political talking points than a reasoned legal brief, and it contains a litany of inaccurate information.’
Few would probably expect anything less from the guy who has lied thousands upon thousands of times since assuming his present position.
The case mirrors the one unfolding involving the House Financial Services Committee and different Trump team members. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has indicated doubts about the legitimacy of House Democrats’ motives for going after Trump’s tax returns, but Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) countered:
‘The Supreme Court has instructed that Congress’s power to investigate is “broad” and “encompasses inquiries concerning the administration of existing laws as well as proposed or possibly needed statutes.”.. the Supreme Court has consistently noted that the motivations underlying Congressional action are not to be second-guessed, even by the courts.’
That case is still ongoing. Neal wanted a response from the IRS by this Tuesday.
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