Trump sues Elijah Cummings to prevent public scrutiny of his finances

President Donald Trump and his businesses on Monday filed a lawsuit aimed at blocking an accounting firm from handing over the president's business records to congressional investigators.

The Washington Post reports that Trump has filed a lawsuit against Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, who last week subpoenaed Mazars USA, an accounting firm used by the Trump Organization.

In the lawsuit against Cummings, Trump's lawyers accused Democrats of being "singularly obsessed with finding something they can use to damage the President politically," and suggested they had no legal authority to issue subpoenas of the president's past business dealings.

Trump's lawyers last week put Mazars "on notice" about complying with a House subpoena issued for the disclosure of Trump's financial transactions before he became president in January 2017.

According to a letter sent by Cummings to Mazars in March, Democrats are seeking information related to Trump’s failed attempt to purchase the Buffalo Bills football franchise. A bombshell New York Times report from earlier this year claimed that Trump and former "fixer" Michael Cohen together convinced Deutsche Bank to vastly overstate Trump’s personal wealth in financial statements given to the National Football League, which sought assurances that Trump had the kind of financial clout needed to pull off a $1 billion deal.