Trump forced to hand over financial records to Congress after three-year legal battle

As part of a three-year investigation into his disclosures and conflicts of interest, Donald Trump and his accounting firm Mazars USA were forced to give Congress important financial information.

The chair of the House Oversight Committee, Carolyn Maloney, said, “I am glad that my Committee has come to an agreement to get important financial documents that former President Trump tried to hide from Congress for years.” The agreement comes after a subpoena was sent to his accounting firm Mazars USA in 2019 asking for financial records. Congresswoman Maloney says this will help the committee “get to the bottom of former President Trump’s egregious behaviour and make sure that future presidents don’t use their power for personal gain.”

The committee was given access to documents because of the subpoena, and Mr. Trump has agreed not to appeal that decision. The appeals court thought that giving the committee access to the former president’s financial records would help them think about ethics reform legislation, such as proposed rules about revealing conflicts of interest and setting up protections against foreign interference. The Independent says that the notice that Mr. Trump’s lawyers sent on August 30 doesn’t say what the terms of the agreement are; it just says that lawyers have come to an agreement.

The agreement has nothing to do with Mr. Trump and the House Ways and Means Committee’s separate investigation into his tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service. In August, a federal appeals court said that Mr. Trump had to give up the documents, even though he had argued against it. The House Oversight Committee started an investigation after hearing from Mr. Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen. He gave the committee several financial statements that questioned Mr. Trump’s debts, declarations, and alleged hush-money payments during his 2016 campaign.

In a letter that was sent to Mazars in March 2019, the committee asked for information. The next month, a subpoena was sent out, which started a three-year legal fight between lawmakers and Mr. Trump’s lawyers. In a settlement, former President Donald Trump and his longtime accounting firm agreed to give some financial information to the House Oversight and Reform Committee. This ended a lawsuit that had been filed because they had been reluctant to do so before. But in a statement released Thursday by the committee, Mazars USA did not say how many of these records it would give over. A federal appeals court decided last month that the Ways and Means Committee could get those tax returns. 

The appeals court also told the committee that it should limit the number of records it planned to look at. Trump’s lawyers told the court in a document on Wednesday that he would withdraw a motion for a review of the case and a related motion asking that the case be heard by the entire panel of judges on the appeals court. This is because of the settlement agreement with the Oversight Committee. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York, is the chairwoman of the committee. She said in a statement, “After years of delaying tactics, the Committee has reached an agreement with the former President and his accounting firm, Mazars USA, to get important records.”