Foiled Again

For the second time this week, a federal judge has ruled that Donald Trump, his business, and his family's financial records must be turned over to congressional investigators (details here and here). In this second matter, Trump records from Deutsche Bank and Capital One must be provided in response to the House Financial Services and Intelligence committees.

Deutsche has already indicated it will now comply with the subpoena. Trump's lawyers have said they will appeal, but like with the ruling from a few days ago, they have little time and little chance of succeeding.

One is left wondering what Trump thought he'd achieve by challenging the subpoenas when he had no valid legal grounds to do so. A congressional subpoena has not been quashed in more than a century.

In both cases decided this week, the subpoenas were directed at third parties holding Trump's records. Thus Trump has no power nor leverage to stop them from now complying with court orders. He runs the risk of further obstruction of justice charges if he attempts to order any of the subpoenaed companies to ignore these two judge's rulings.

After all this elaborate legal drama, let's hope the documents the subpoenas produce contain something that can be nailed on Trump.