President Trump is fighting back against a judge’s order to expedite his lawsuit seeking to block a congressional subpoena for his financial records.
Trump’s lawyers wrote in the filing Monday that District Judge Amit Mehta’s order last week to hear arguments at the same time on both the merits of the lawsuit and their request for a preliminary injunction for the subpoena gave them “short notice” ahead of a scheduled hearing Tuesday and “would undermine [Trump’s] constitutional due-process rights.”
{mosads}The attorneys for the president and his businesses argued that consolidating the arguments is “inappropriate” and asked the judge to either limit Tuesday’s hearing to solely discussing the preliminary injunction on the subpoena for financial documents from the accounting firm Mazars or to cancel the hearing altogether and schedule a trial for a later date.
“[Consolidation is inappropriate at this juncture because Plaintiffs have received no responsive pleadings, have had little time to investigate their claims, and have been given no discovery,” Monday’s filing reads in part.
Mehta last week said he planned to put the lawsuit on a fast track for a ruling. The case was expected to be tied up in the court system for several weeks, if not longer.
But the Obama appointee wrote in his order that “the court can discern no benefit from an additional round of legal arguments.”
“Nor is there an obvious need to delay ruling on the merits to allow for development of the factual record,” he added.
The request for the financial documents was issued by House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) earlier this year, as part of House Democrats’ sweeping investigations into the president, his family and his businesses.
Trump is also suing in a New York court to fight congressional subpoenas issued to Deutsche Bank and Capital One for financial records pertaining to him, his family and his businesses.
Trump Opposition to Consolidation by Jacqueline Thomsen on Scribd