DOJ tells Supreme Court that subpoenas are ‘distracting’ as it backs Trump’s fight to keep his tax returns hidden

This Monday night, the Justice Department took President Trump's side in his ongoing battle to resist Congressional subpoenas for his financial records. Addressing Supreme Court justices, DOJ lawyers said lawmakers must meet a higher bar when seeking a sitting president’s personal records, Roll Call reports.

"The cases, set for March 31 oral argument, center on subpoenas from three House committees to accounting firm Mazars USA, Deutsche Bank and Capital One Financial Corp. House Democrats are seeking eight years of Trump’s financial and tax records," Roll Call's Todd Ruger writes.

According to the Trump administration, the subpoenas pose "a serious risk of harassing the President and distracting him from his constitutional duties." The DOJ backed that assertion by saying Congress did not meet the requirements which should be “set forth with specificity” and that the information sought should be “demonstrably critical to the legitimate legislative purpose.”

“The four reasons offered in support of the Mazars subpoena betray an impermissible law-enforcement objective, and the boilerplate statement that the subpoena furthers ‘multiple laws and legislative proposals’ is far too vague to enable, much less withstand, meaningful scrutiny of its legitimacy,” the Justice Department wrote in its brief.

Read the full report over at Roll Call.