Appeals court hands Trump loss in his effort to stop Deutsche Bank and Capital One from handing over financial records
A federal appeals court has handed President Trump another loss in his efforts to stop Congress from gaining access to his financial records, ruling Deutsche Bank and Capital One can turn over the president's records to two congressional committees.
In a divided ruling, a three-judge panel on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Mr. Trump's effort to block three subpoenas issued by the House Financial Services and Intelligence Committees for more than 10 years of business records for Mr. Trump, three of his children, the Trump Organization and related entities.
The committees issued the subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and Capital One in April, but the president swiftly sued to prevent compliance. In May, the federal district court in New York rejected Mr. Trump's request to block the banks from handing over the records to the committees, which are led by Democrats.
The New York-based appeals court agreed with the lower court and ordered "prompt compliance" with the congressional subpoenas, writing in its decision that "the public interest favors denial of a preliminary injunction."
In his ruling, Judge Jon O. Newman wrote the House "committees' interests in pursuing their constitutional legislative function is a far more significant public interest than whatever public interest inheres in avoiding the risk of a chief executive's distraction arising from disclosure of documents reflecting his private financial transactions."
The 2nd Circuit halted compliance with the subpoena for seven days to allow Mr. Trump to ask the Supreme Court to extend the stay.
Jay Sekulow, the president's attorney, said the president's lawyers "believe the subpoena is invalid as issued."
"In light of the Second Circuit decision, we are evaluating our next options including seeking review at the Supreme Court of the United States," he said in a statement.
Mr. Trump has suffered a string of losses in the courts as he seeks to shield his financial records from Congress and state investigators.
If the case does land before the Supreme Court, it would join two other disputes over Congress's attempts to gain access to Mr. Trump's business records.
The president's attorneys have already asked the Supreme Court to take up his challenge to a subpoena from a New York grand jury for his tax returns and is expected to appeal this week a lower court ruling that directed his accounting firm, Mazars USA, to comply with a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee for his business records.
