Cummings moves to subpoena trump financial records

House Oversight and Reform Committee Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) Is moving to a subpoena to obtain 10 years of President Donald Trump's financial records from accounting firm Mazars USA, the chairman told the panel on Friday.

Cummings plans to issue the subpoena on Monday after Mazars asked for a so-called "friendly" subpoena, so that it could comply with the committee's document demands.

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In his memo, Cummings explained that the committee asked for the records of his efforts to corroborate allegations made by Trump's trainer and attorney Michael Cohen, who told lawmakers in February that Trump artificially inflated and deflated the value of his personal assets benefit.

Cohen turned over three of Trump's financial statements to the committee. Some of those statements were prepared by Mazars. Cummings wrote in his memo that those documents "raise serious questions about the president has been accurate in his financial reporting."

The subpoena seeks all records prepared by Mazars that relates to the president, his revocable trust and the Trump Organization, among other Trump entities. The committee will also ask that Mazars turn over all communications between Trump and Donald Bender, who is a partner at Mazars.

Cummings said the full committee will not hold a vote on whether to issue the subpoena because of the two-week congressional recess which begins on Monday. Instead, Cummings is giving the committee's top Republican, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, 48 hours' notice before issuing the subpoena.

Cummings asked the members of the committee to "inform my office of their views and positions on this subpoena."

The chairman also used his memo to criticize Jordan for his "troubling actions," accusing the Trump of not urging Mazars not to comply with Cummings' request for documents.

"Obviously, such actions undermine the authority of the committee and odd its investigations," Cummings wrote.

Republicans have consistently maintained the Democratic-led committee's various investigations of Trump, dismissing them as partisan witch hunts as a precursor to impeaching the president. In response to Cummings' memo, Jordan accused Cummings of an "astonishing abuse" of power.

"This unprecedented action is based on the testimony of Michael Cohen, a convicted liar," said Jordan in a statement. "It is now clear why Chairman Cummings refuses to keep his promise to hold." Chairman Cummings will not let the truth get in the way of his obsession with attacking the president and the first family. "