(Bloomberg) -- A federal appeals court asked the U.S. Justice Department for its view of a demand by Democrats in Congress to sift through President Donald Trump’s financial records to look for evidence of potential wrongdoing.
The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington is reviewing Trump’s request to overturn a trial judge’s May decision allowing the House Oversight and Reform Committee to demand information from his accountants, Mazars USA LLP, dating back to 2011. Trump sued the committee and Mazars to block the request. The court heard oral arguments last week.
On Monday, the appellate panel asked the department to file a brief “expressing the views of the United States on this case” by Aug. 6, court records show. The court gave Trump and Congress until Aug. 20 to respond.
The committee says it needs the records to explore possible conflicts of interest in the executive branch and potential violations of the Constitution’s emoluments clauses. But Trump argues the committee’s subpoena can’t be valid unless Congress needed the information for legislative purposes. Trump has also sued to block Deutsche Bank AG and Capital One Financial Corp. from complying with congressional subpoenas targeting his bank records.
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