It was almost exactly two and a half years ago that long-time Trump Organization hatchet man Michael Cohen testified before Congress that his former boss is a massive tax cheat who (among other things) lowballs his worth when paying taxes and exaggerates it when seeking loans.
On March 20, 2019, dear, departed former House Government Oversight chairman Elijah Cummings initiated an effort to see for himself. He asked Trump’s accounting firm, Mazar’s, to turn over documents. A legal brawl ensued.
Trump lost at every level of court. He lost in District Court, the District Appeals Court (three-judge and en banc), the Supreme Court and the District Appeals Court, again. In the meantime, he lost reelection, initiated a coup attempt, launched a failing social media site, and got busted hoarding top secret documents.
That’s a lot of losing and now comes another blow, as explained by current (and outgoing) House Government Oversight chairwoman Carolyn Maloney:
“After numerous court victories, I am pleased that my Committee has now reached an agreement to obtain key financial documents that former President Trump fought for years to hide from Congress. In April 2019, the Oversight Committee issued a lawful subpoena for financial records as part of our investigation into President Trump’s unprecedented conflicts of interest, self-dealing, and foreign financial ties. After facing years of delay tactics, the Committee has now reached an agreement with the former President and his accounting firm, Mazars USA, to obtain critical documents. These documents will inform the Committee’s efforts to get to the bottom of former President Trump’s egregious conduct and ensure that future presidents do not abuse their position of power for personal gain.”
I guess Trump saw no profit in going back to the Supreme Court one final time only to get spanked, otherwise I can’t imagine why he finally relented. Tellingly, the decisive ruling found that Congress had established its inquiry had several legitimate purposes:
On July 8, 2022, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the Committee is authorized to obtain certain financial records and communications from former President Trump and his business entities covered by the Committee’s subpoena. The Court held that former “President Trump’s financial information would advance the Committee’s consideration of ethics reform legislation across all three of its investigative tracks,” including presidential ethics and conflicts of interest, presidential financial disclosures, and presidential adherence to Constitutional safeguards against foreign interference and undue influence.
With luck, we won’t have to deal with a future president hosting foreign dignitaries and lobbyists in his downtown DC hotel, or have them charging outrageous fees to house the Secret Service at their golf resorts. Maybe we won’t have to wonder what kind of financial hold a foreign country has over our president that might explain his otherwise inexplicable behavior. And maybe it will significantly harder for a conman to become president in the first place.
As to Trump, we’ll be able to fill in more of the blanks and answer some of the most confounding questions of his presidency.
