This post has been updated.
House Oversight Committee Chair Elijah Cummings (D-MD) issued a subpoena to Mazars USA accounting firm for detailed information on President Trump’s financial history on Monday.
Cummings wrote in an April 12 memo to members of his committee that he planned on giving members until Monday at 11 a.m. to provide views before issuing the subpoena.
“The Committee has full authority to investigate whether the President may have engaged in illegal conduct before and during his tenure in office,” Cummings wrote in the memo.
He describes the scope of that investigation as “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 Clauses of the Constitution, and to review whether he has accurately reported his finances to the Office of Government Ethics and other federal entities.”
He sent a letter requesting the information from Mazars in March. The firm said that it would comply with a subpoena, according to a statement from Cummings earlier this month.
The committee’s investigation focuses on allegations made by former Trump attorney Michael Cohen that Trump altered the value of his assets for different purposes, ranging from purported attempts to lessen his tax liability to a quixotic venture at buying the Buffalo Bills.
The investigation could provide Democrats with a separate way to gain access to key Trump financial information, as House Ways and Means grapples with the Treasury Department’s attempts to stall the committee’s request for Trump’s tax returns.
In the subpoena, Cummings demands documents from 2011 to 2018 relating to Trump and seven of his companies.
Cummings seeks statements of financial condition, annual statements, periodic financial reports, and auditor’s reports that Mazars prepared for Trump.
The Oversight chair also demands “underlying, supporting, or source documents and records” related to the accountant’s work for Trump.
Cummings also seeks communications between Trump, the Trump Org, and David Bender, a Mazars accountant who reportedly had the Trump account.
The subpoena gives Mazars until April 29 to comply.
House Oversight members Mark Meadows (R-NC) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) revealed the existence of the probe into Mazars in a March 27 press release, accusing Cummings of overreach while sending a letter to Mazars advising the firm to ignore the request. In his memorandum today, Cummings lashed out at Meadows and Jordan, calling their actions “unprecedented” while saying that “such actions undermine the authority of the Committee and impair its investigations.”
In his February testimony before Cummings’s committee, Cohen accused Trump of inflating his assets during an attempt to buy the Buffalo Bills.
The request itself seeks records and statements from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, the Trump Organization Inc., the Trump Organization LLC, the Trump Corporation, DJT Holdings LLC, the Trump Old Post Office LLC, the Trump Foundation, and from related entities.
Read a copy of the memo that Rep. Cummings circulated to lawmakers below:
Correction: This post has been updated to reflect the timing of the planned subpoena.
YES!!!
Aggressive Action From Congress
When I point out that the Dem’s are moving too slow, that ‘playing by the book’ is playing into the Republican’s plan of ‘the long stall for the long haul’ – I’m often hit with “What do you WANT? WE don’t ‘break the law’!”
I don’t want the House to ‘break the law’.
I want them to USE it.
Stern letters and subpoenas are ROUTINELY IGNORED.
They are ignored – because there are NO CONSEQUENCES for ignoring them.
This has been going on since at least the Bush administration.
This. Must. Stop.
The house has the power to arrest those who refuse subpoenas. I say, issue the subpoena with the Seargeant at Arms in tow. Refuse it? Have the person arrested and locked up. Even if it’s only for day – in their own office – LOCK THEM UP.
Take away any and all privileges they might have.
Shake up the norms and the protocols. Make the Republicans REACT TO US for a change. Sure, they’ll be outraged. Who gives a fuck? They’re ALWAYS outraged. What I hope will happen – is that the Dem base will be INSPIRED. Not depressed by more stern letters and ignored subpoenas.
Move fast – break things.
Nothing illegal. Just… unusual. Outside of the ‘accepted norm’. Break some protocols. Do things that MIGHT create a legal hassle. “Don’t like it? Let’s go to court and figure out if it’s legal. Meanwhile we’re going to keep doing it…” That’s the CHICAGO way. That’s how the Republicans accomplish their steamrolling of democracy. Act first, permission later.
The house needs to create select committees. Not just one, I’m talking at least three. A select committee to investigate emolument violations. A select committee to investigate campaign finance violations. A select committee to investigate foreign influence… you get the idea. Select committees to issue subpoenas and hold hearings.
From. Now. Until. The. Election.
Make the Benghazii investigations look like a cakewalk.
”But nothing ever came of the Benghazii investigations! They were a sham! No charges!”
There were NEVER going to be charges. That’s not why they were held. They were held to continually pollute the airwaves with a constant narrative of ‘criminality’. And it worked beautifully.
Flip the narrative. We need lots and lots of subcommittees. We don’t need ‘silent actors’ like Mueller – we need public action. On the record quotes. Hell, lots of juicy leaks.
The mistake Mueller IS making – is to maintain his silence NOW while Rosenstein is yapping in defense of Barr. “To sin by silence when they should protest, makes cowards of men.”― Abraham Lincoln
So when asked “What do you expect/want?” My answer is “Action. Now.”
LOUD Action that CAN be taken. That will take back control of the public narrative.
Narratives drive votes. Don’t believe it? Look at the ‘crooked Hillary’ narrative and the “More emails discovered” narrative. There was no substance or ‘reality’ to ANY of that. It was all narrative.
Never forget what Rove said about those of us in the ‘reality based’ community. We’re always behind the curve to their actions – studying them ‘judiciously’ while they create a new reality from their actions.
Pelosi has the power to make this happen. Why isn’t she using it? Because it’s ‘not worth the trouble?” Well I suppose that’s one narrative to put out there. But I’m damned tired of slow walking our actions. I’ve got a closet full of dry powder left over from Fitzmas deliveries during the Bush administration.
Act. Now. Create a new reality for THOSE bastards to study.
Shout it so loud – that FOX has to spend all their time DENYING it. Put them on the defensive. If you’re explaining YOU’RE LOSING. LBJ knew this. “Hell, I know it’s not true – I just want to hear the sunofabitch deny it!”
Create a constant narrative of corruption so deep and wide – the laziest Dem in the world – will march in the streets and to the polls come 2020.
As Josh points out – we’re in the midst of ‘dark times’. –“ It will be a long slog, in the face of people at the commanding heights of executive power who want to empower strongmanism. On the most generous read the angle is to stymie every investigation by running out the clock before friendly courts until 2020. It will require aggressive action from Congress (a mixed picture so far), the best lawyering in the courts but as much as anything else, perhaps more than anything else, political mobilization. I feel fairly confident this will all happen. But it won’t be remotely easy or quick.”
No more stalling - time to act now.
That’s what I want.
Elijah The Demander
At what point does the repeated violations of law by Trump by the ignoring subpoenas, refusing constitutionally lawful requests for documents, and refusal to testify before any government authority under oath constitute “High Crimes and/or Misdemeanors”?
Are these not ALL “impeachable” offenses?
Taxman’s cumming
Problem with that is: “Select Committees” MUST have near-equal representation from the minority party, PICKED BY the minority party. You can be sure that any select committee will be undermined and opposed from within by the lickspittle Republicans on it who will funnel any and all information directly to the White House so they can avoid any testimony or documents being turned over.
Then there is the Senate, where Mitch McConnel is running roughshod over all the rules and norms to give Trump everything he asks for: Which at this point is to stack the courts with as many Federalist Society sycophants as possible in the shortest possible time. That way when any legal challenges land in the Federal Docket, his hand-picked cronies will rule in his (and Republicans) favor every time. It may not look like it with the daily outrages of the WH, but the Fascists are playing the long-game here, and they are WINNING.