Retired Justice Stevens: Trump ‘exercising powers that do not really belong to him’

Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said this week that he is concerned President Trump is “exercising powers that do not really belong to him.”

Stevens, 99, who retired in 2010, told The Wall Street Journal there are “things we should all be concerned about.”

When pressed for specifics, Stevens said he thinks Trump is exercising powers that are not within a president’s authority.{mosads}

“I mean, he has to comply with subpoenas and things like that,” Stevens, an appointee of former Republican President Ford, told the outlet.

Stevens’s comments came after Trump vowed last month to fight “all the subpoenas” issued by House Democrats as they seek to investigate his campaign, business and administration.

Trump has sought a preliminary injunction to stop Deutsche Bank and Capital One from handing over financial records pertaining to him, his family and his private businesses that were requested in subpoenas issued by House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).

Attorneys for the Democratic-controlled House Financial Services and Intelligence committees, meanwhile, have accused the president of attempting to stop lawmakers from carrying out legitimate investigations.

House Democrats in court documents said they “are investigating serious and urgent questions concerning the safety of banking practices, money laundering in the financial sector, foreign influence in the U.S. political process, and the threat of foreign financial leverage, including over the President, his family, and his business.”

Trump is also suing to stop a congressional subpoena issued by House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) for financial records from the accounting firm Mazars.

Stevens was appointed to the high court in 1975 and was confirmed 98-0 by a Democratic-led Senate to succeed a liberal justice. He retired from the bench as the head of the liberal minority, the Journal noted.

His new book, “The Making of a Justice: Reflections on My First 94 Years,” will be released May 14.