SUBPOENA
Lawyers for the president are fighting document and witness subpoenas on several fronts, and Mehta’s ruling came hours after former White House counsel Donald Mcgahn was directed by the Justice Department not to appear Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee, which is seeking testimony about his conversations with Trump. A lawyer for Mcgahn then said the former counsel would not appear.
The Justice Department insists that immunity from testimony does not evaporate once a presidential adviser leaves the government, because the topics of interest to Congress are discussions that occurred when the person worked for the president.
Democrats had subpoenaed Mcgahn to testify Tuesday morning, hoping he would become a star witness in their investigation into whether Trump obstructed justice. Mcgahn provided critical testimony in several instances of potential obstruction by Trump, detailed in Mueller’s report.
Congressional Democrats have vowed to fight for evidence of potential misconduct by Trump and those close to him, and the president’s legal team is broadly resisting those efforts. How those fights play out in court in the months ahead could affect the 2020 presidential race.
Mehta flatly rejected arguments from the president’s lawyers that the House Oversight Committee’s demands for the records from Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA, were overly broad and served no legitimate legislative function.
“It is simply not fathomable,” the judge wrote, “that a Constitution that grants Congress the power to remove a President for reasons including criminal behavior would deny Congress the power to investigate him for unlawful conduct — past or present — even without formally opening an impeachment inquiry.”
Trump has argued those congressional inquiries are politically motivated attacks on the authority of the presidency, while Democrats insist that the subpoenas are essential to ensuring that no president is above the law.
When the lawsuit was filed, Trump’s private attorney Jay Sekulow said in a statement that the president’s team “will not allow Congressional Presidential harassment to go unanswered.”
The company said in a statement that it will “respect the legal process and fully comply with its legal obligations.”
While Democrats scored the first court victory in the fight over the president’s financial records, it’s unclear how many of these disputes will reach higher courts, or how those courts might rule.
Monday’s ruling threw historical shade at Trump, comparing him with former President James Buchanan, generally considered one of the country’s worst leaders, who had also complained bitterly about “harrassing” congressional inquiries.
Mehta noted that Congress also launched an investigation into the conduct of Bill Clinton before he became president.
“Congress plainly views itself as having sweeping authority to investigate illegal conduct of a President, before and after taking office,” the judge wrote. “This court is not prepared to roll back the tide of history.”
The judge gave the White House a week to formally appeal the decision.
An appeal could test decades of legal precedent that has upheld Congress’ right to investigate — a legal battle that is one part of a broader effort by House Democrats to examine Trump’s finances, his campaign and allegations that he sought to obstruct justice in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Broadly, the stakes involve possibly changing the balance of power between the executive and the legislative branches of government for years to come.
In the Mazars case, Mehta said a congressional investigation into illegal conduct before and during a president’s time in office fits “comfortably”with Congress’ broad investigative powers, which include an “informing function,” or power to expose corruption.
Trump, his three eldest children and companies also are attempting to block a subpoena by the House Financial Services Committee for Trump’s bank records issued to Deutsche Bank and Capital One Financial, which a federal judge in Manhattan is set to hear Wednesday.