President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against Democratic Rep.
Elijah Cummings claiming his attempts to summon years of financial information from his businesses is an overreach of congressional power.
The filing was made in D.C. District Court Monday, April 22 and, sees plaintiffs Trump, a Republican, along with his Trump Organization business, take aim at defendants Cummings, who serves as Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Peter Kenny, who is the Chief Investigative Counsel of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
“The Democrat Party, with its newfound control of the U.S. House of Representatives, has declared all-out political war against President Donald J. Trump,” the lawsuit said. “Subpoenas are their weapon of choice.”
Last week, Cummings subpoenaed Trump’s accountant, Mazars USA, which also handles the Trump Organization, requesting “financial statements, supporting documents, and communications about Plaintiffs over an eight-year period — mostly predating the President’s time in office.”
The suit charges that the Maryland congressman “has ignored the constitutional limits on Congress’ power to investigate” and states the subpoena of Mazars “lacks a legitimate legislative purpose.”
Additionally, Trump and his businesses are also asking for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to halt Mazars from handing over the requested information. Mazars is actually a defendant — one of the entities Trump is suing — in the president’s lawsuit.
In response to the suit, Cummings released a statement dismissing the filing.
“The President has a long history of trying to use baseless lawsuits to attack his adversaries, but there is simply no valid legal basis to interfere with this duly authorized subpoena from Congress,” the 13-term House veteran said. “This complaint reads more like political talking points than a reasoned legal brief, and it contains a litany of inaccurate information. The White House is engaged in unprecedented stonewalling on all fronts, and they have refused to produce a single document or witness to the Oversight Committee during this entire year.”
The lawsuit is the latest showing of tension between the Republican commander-in-chief and Democratic representative, a struggle that took shape shortly after Trump took office in 2017. One older example came in June 2018, when Cummings slammed the administration for separating migrant families at the border. At the time, some 2,000 children of recent undocumented immigrants were being held there away from their parents.
“If you believe people entered our country illegally, even if you believe they have no valid asylum claims in their own country, even if you believe immigration should be halted entirely, we all should be able to agree that in the United States of America, we will not intentionally separate children from their parents,” he said at the time.
