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A Federal Judge hastened President Trump's lawsuit against the House Watch and Reform Committee for his subpoena of Trump's accountants for his financial information.
The decision to expedite the trial could bode well for House Democrats, who are making other efforts to force the President to return financial records and documents relating to his trade relations, and poorly for any attempt by the administration to block investigations after the 2020 elections.
Trump brought an action in the US District Court for the District of Columbia to block the subpoena. On Thursday, Judge Amit Mehta stepped up the trial by informing Congress and the President, represented by his personal lawyer rather than by a White House lawyer, that he had enough information from on the other hand to decide on the case.
The central issue in Trump's subpoena challenge is whether Trump's accounting firm, Mazars USA LLP, is summoned by the congressional committee as a valid exercise of legislative power.
Mehta will now hold a hearing on the case on May 14, after which he will decide the case in full and review Trump's motion to block the Democrats' demand.
The decision is "favorable to the House as they have a better assurance of victory in this case than in others," said Charles Tiefer, former Deputy General Counsel of the House and Professor of Law at the University. of Baltimore.
Tiefer warned that the accelerated schedule might not necessarily indicate whether Mehta could govern in one way or another, but added that the president had the daunting task of fighting in this battle. as much as he "asks the court to go against the Chamber".
But Gene Rossi, a former federal prosecutor who spent 11 years in the tax division of the Justice Department, said that Mehta's decision to speed up the handling of the case indicated that he was not inclined to take sides with Trump.
"I do not see the argument that the President has, then the judge, in making the decision expedited, probably think that it is a case that could be tried without too many arguments," said Rossi. "In short, what he says is an unstoppable decision."
Since they took control of the House and obtained the power of summons, the Democrats have vowed to use their oversight responsibilities to question the President, his trade relations, his finances and his administrative policy.
But Trump said he would push back their efforts and fight "all subpoenas", setting up a legal confrontation with his political opponents.
In addition to issuing a subpoena to the President's accountants for his financial statements, Trump and the Democrats are also on the verge of a legal battle over his tax returns, which the House Ways and Means Committee asks the Treasury Department. The House's Intelligence and Financial Services Committee also issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and other financial institutions for records related to Trump's business relations.
Richard Neal, Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, D-Mass., Wonders if he intends to take legal action himself to try to compel the IRS to return the tax records of the last six years of Trump, or to issue a summons to appear before seizing the court. .
The current battle over his accounting records might, however, indicate whether further litigation involving Congressional subpoenas for Trump's documents will likely be successful.
"A House victory in this case would surely foreshadow the success of the House Ways and Means Committee seeking Trump tax returns," Tiefer said. "We can not imagine that the House will get the financial statements of Trump's accountant and will still deny them to the IRS."
Mr. Tiefer nevertheless stated that a loss to the House in this case would not prevent the Ways and Means Committee from being victorious, since it has a special power, under federal law, to request tax records.
"It would distinguish this case from that one," he said.
Although the documentary litigation may have paved the way for a long legal battle, Mehta's decision to speed up the handling of the case makes it more likely that the case will be settled before the next presidential election.
"The judge's decision in this case to initiate an expedited process is not good news for the president's attempt to push this past November 2020," Rossi said.
Tiefer agreed. "[Mehta] could not have expressed the desire to act faster if he had installed an emergency light on the top of his car and broadcast a police siren, "he said.
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