Trump’s Lawyers Come to Agreement With House Committees to Hold Off on Subpoenas: Report

Janita Kan
By Janita Kan
May 25, 2019Politics
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Trump’s Lawyers Come to Agreement With House Committees to Hold Off on Subpoenas: Report
President Donald Trump speaks to the press as he departs the White House in Washington, on April 5, 2019. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)

President Donald Trump’s attorneys have reached a deal with House committees to delay the enforcement of subpoenas that are seeking his financial records from two banks, according to a report.

A source familiar with the agreement told CNN that the lawyers had struck the deal with the House Intelligence and Financial Services committees on May 25, which allows for an expedited appeal schedule.

According to the news broadcaster, a similar agreement was reached with the House Oversight committee earlier this week.

On May 22, District Judge Edgardo Ramos, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, refused to block the subpoenas on the two banks that require them to hand to Congress banking and financial records, including “records of every single checking withdrawal, credit-card swipe, or debit-card purchase—no matter how trivial or small—made by each and every member of the Trump family,” a lawsuit filed by the Trump family stated.

The lawsuit was filed at the end of April to block the two banks from complying with the subpoenas. Trump’s lawyers argued that the Democrat-controlled House committees’ demands for records have no legitimate or lawful purpose and are so broad they would include transaction records on the Trump family’s personal shopping.

Following Ramos’s ruling, Trump’s lawyers filed an appeal on May 24 with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of Trump, his children—Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump—and several of their companies to overturn the federal judge’s ruling (pdf).

Additionally, a court document (pdf) filed in the case on May 25 read, “the parties have reached an agreement regarding compliance with and enforcement of the subpoenas during the pendency of Plaintiffs’ appeal,” likely referring to this agreement.

The court document filed requests a stay on the subpoenas while the appeal filed on May 24 is pending.

U.S. President Donald Trump
U.S. President Donald Trump tosses a hat into the crowd as he arrives for a ‘Make America Great Again’ campaign rally at Williamsport Regional Airport, May 20, 2019 in Montoursville, Pennsylvania. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The House committees’ subpoenas for Trump’s bank records is one of the three investigations launched by key House committees in April. The other probes are seeking the president’s tax returns and the full declassification of the partially redacted Mueller report. So far, the number of inquiries led by House Democrats has grown to 10.

These Democrat-led probes could be seen as an attempt to impede Trump’s work. The Democrats began their investigations on the president after gaining control of the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm election. They increased the number of probes after special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that Trump had not colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.

In response, Trump previously said that he plans to fight “all the subpoenas” by House Democrats.

Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to this report.

From The Epoch Times

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