In an Ultrafast Decision, An Obama Judge Immediately Rules That Trump May Not Block Congressional Harassment Efforts to Dig Into His Taxpayer Records

Congress has no authority -- none-- to conduct a criminal investigation.

That's an Executive branch function.

But even assuming that Congress may exercise its pretend "oversight" function and it needs Trump's tax records to do that -- how the hell can it demand his private taxpayer records when he was a private individual with no connection to the US government?

That's what they did -- they demanded his last eight years of tax records.

He's only been a president for two, and he was only running for president since June of 2015 or so.

So now the Congressional Democrats can just demand private citizen tax records when they want to conduct a lawless vigilante invasion of privacy?

Indeed, says another Obama appointee -- in record time, as Mark Levin pointed out.

A federal judge on Monday upheld a congressional subpoena seeking President Donald Trump’s financial records from an accounting firm, arguing that Congress is well within its rights to investigate potential illegal behavior by a president -- even without launching a formal impeachment inquiry.

U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta's ruling delivers a striking blow to the president's efforts to resist Democratic investigations, and is certain to give Democrats further legal basis to investigate Trump, his finances, and his presidential campaign.

In addition to upholding the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s subpoena to accounting firm Mazars USA for eight years of Trump's financial records, Mehta took the extra step of denying the president's request for a stay pending appeal.

In other words, he took the decision out of the hands of the Appeals Court by saying that the firm must turn over the records before the appeals court has had a chance to check his ruling.

Jay Sekulow, one of the president's personal attorneys, said: "We will be filing a timely notice of appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals."

But unless the Circuit Court issues its own emergency stay, then this appeal will be moot -- this Obama judge has rigged the game to get the records to Democrats before the appeal.

Meanwhile, Trump has directed his former WH counsel Don McGahn to ignore the Democrat congressional subpeona.

"The Department of Justice has provided a legal opinion stating that, based on long-standing, bipartisan, and Constitutional precedent, the former Counsel to the President cannot be forced to give such testimony, and Mr. McGahn has been directed to act accordingly," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement sent to reporters.

The White House letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler was signed by Pat Cipollone, the current counsel to the president, citing the Justice Department’s advice based on executive privilege.

The DOJ's own Office of Legal Counsel wrote a memo declaring this to be their understanding of constitutional law.

In an opinion released Monday, the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel ruled that former White House counsel Donald McGahn is "not legally required" to testify to Congress on matters related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

"The immunity of the President’s immediate advisors from compelled congressional testimony on matters related to their official responsibilities has long been recognized and arises from the fundamental workings of the separation of powers," the opinion stated.

posted by Ace of Spades at 12:46 PM

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