Congress, the subpoena power and a “legislative purpose”

[Elderberry]

Howe on the Court 7/24/2019

When the Supreme Court returns to the bench in the fall, it will hear oral arguments on a variety of high-profile issues, including protection under federal employment laws for LGBT employees and the Trump administration’s decision to terminate the “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” program, known as DACA, which allows undocumented immigrants who came to this country as children to apply for protection from deportation. But other issues are lurking in the wings, including conflicts between Congress and the White House over congressional demands for President Donald Trump’s financial records and tax returns. The Supreme Court has ruled that such requests must serve a “valid legislative purpose” – a requirement that it has interpreted as giving Congress broad, but not unlimited, power to investigate.

One case making its way through the courts is Trump v. Mazars LLP, the battle over the April 2019 subpoena issued by the House Oversight Committee to Mazars USA, Trump’s accounting firm, for financial records – dating back to 2011 – for Trump and his businesses. Before issuing the subpoena, committee chair Elijah Cummings sent a memorandum to other committee members in which he explained that the impetus for the subpoena was testimony by Michael Cohen, the president’s personal attorney, in February 2019, in which Cohen told members of the committee that the president’s financial statements were not accurate. Among other things, Cohen reported, the president sometimes either over- or under-reported the value of his assets, depending on the purpose for which the financial statements were being used.

Cummings wrote that the committee “has full authority to investigate whether the President may have engaged in illegal conduct before and during his time in office, to determine whether he has undisclosed conflicts of interest that may impair his ability to make impartial policy decisions, to assess whether he is complying with the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, and to review whether he has accurately reported his finances to the Office of Government Ethics and other federal entities. The Committee’s interest in these matters,” Cummings concluded, “informs its review of multiple laws and legislative proposals under our jurisdiction.”

Trump asked a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to block the subpoena to Mazars, arguing that it went beyond Congress’ authority to conduct investigations and lacked a legislative purpose. Instead, Trump and his lawyers countered, the committee’s “true motive” was “to collect personal information about him solely for political advantage.” Moreover, they added, the subpoena was actually “law enforcement” activity directed at “the conduct of a private citizen years before he was even a candidate for public office.”

When U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta rejected Trump’s request in May, Trump took his case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which heard oral argument in the president’s appeal on July 12. News reports indicate that two of the three judges on the panel hearing the case were skeptical of the president’s argument. If the court rules against the president, it could set up an appeal to the Supreme Court later this year or early next year.

More: http://amylhowe.com/2019/07/24/congress-the-subpoena-power-and-a-legislative-purpose/

[Free Vulcan]

Let me guess: if this is heard by SCOTUS, Roberts will suddenly ignore the motives of Congress for wanting Trump's financials, even though he'll use it to issue injunctions against the Trump admin.

$20 says he'll violate his own precedent.