President Donald Trump sent his lawyers in front of a federal judge today to defend the Trump administration’s claim that Congress doesn’t have a right to subpoena any documents regarding Donald’s finances unless they have a legitimate “legislative purpose.” And needless to say, it didn’t turn out well for Trump’s attorneys.
According to a report by Politico, Washington D.C district court judge Amit Mehta thoroughly grilled Trump’s legal team and made it strikingly clear that based on this countries system of checks and balances outlined in the Constitution that allows Congress to oversee the executive branch of government, he really had no interest in declaring the subpoenas of Trump’s finances unconstitutional.
Mehta’s biggest charge was the claim that Congress had to show “legislative purpose” before they could rightfully issue a congressional subpoena.
“Does Congress have to do that — do they have to identify a bill in advance?” the judge asked. “The Supreme Court has said the opposite.”
In fact, Mehta used the congressional investigations of both former president Richard Nixon as well as Bill Clinton as precedent — citing that during neither trial was Congress subjected to any specific legislative purpose.
Judge Mehta noted from the very beginning that he would be giving this case the time it deserves, but refused to allow the matter to drag out. Saying, “No judge would make a hasty decision on such important issues for the sake of expediency,” but at the same time he made it clear “We’re not dragging this out.”
According to CNN legal analyst and attorney Ross Garber, Trump’s attorneys ended up stumbling over a lot of their answers during the judge’s grilling.
“The limits of Congress’s authority to demand information implicates important constitutional issues that courts rarely decide,” Garber stated. “For at least some of the judge’s questions, Trump lawyers didn’t have great answers.”
It seems the Trump team went into this expecting everyone to simply bow at their feet, and it didn’t turn out that way.
Featured image via DC Tribune GalleryÂ
