The American People Deserve to Know Trump’s Financial Background
Statement of Lisa Gilbert, Executive Vice President, Public Citizen
Note: Today the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in two landmark cases concerning U.S. House committees’ ability to enforce subpoenas seeking President Donald Trump’s financial records from three businesses: Trump’s longtime accounting firm Mazars LLP and two banks, Deutsche Bank and Capital One. In Trump v. Mazars, in which Public Citizen filed an amicus brief, the court upheld Congress’ authority to issue subpoenas seeking information about a president. The court decided, however, that the lower courts in these cases had not taken adequate account of the significant separation of powers concerns implicated by congressional subpoenas for the president’s information.
Trump has taken stonewalling Congress and keeping secrets from the American people to new heights. While we are relieved that the court rejected Trump’s argument that Congress lacks authority to conduct meaningful oversight of the president, we are disappointed that Congress’s ability to do so will be delayed even further. Nonetheless, we are confident that the lower courts, applying the balancing test described in today’s opinion, will again rule in favor of disclosure.
The American people deserve to know the financial background of their president and have been demanding this information since before his election.