NEW YORK _ The U.S. House of Representatives moved to defend its subpoenas for Donald Trump's bank records, asking a New York judge to include the legislative body in a lawsuit the president filed against Deutsche Bank AG and Capital One Financial Corp. to prevent the disclosures.
Trump, his three eldest children _ Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka _ and several of his companies sued Monday, asking a federal judge to block the banks from turning over records related to the president, his family and their businesses. The Trumps claim the subpoenas by the Democrat-controlled House are an improper attempt to dig up embarrassing material for political purposes.
The House wasn't named in the Trump lawsuit, so attorneys for the lawmakers asked U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos in Manhattan on Friday to allow them into the case, according to a court filing. The judge has scheduled a hearing May 22 on the Trumps' motion to block the subpoenas.
The Trumps had asked for an emergency order to block delivery of the records, which the banks said they would do beginning Monday. The House later agreed to postpone the deadline for the banks to comply until seven days after the judge rules on the Trumps' request. That allows the judge to hold a hearing and would give the Trumps time to appeal and seek an additional delay if they lose.
Deutsche Bank and Capital One said they are prepared to hand over the records unless ordered not to by a court.
The court fight over the subpoenas is part of a broader conflict in which the White House is delaying compliance with congressional demands for evidence and testimony, or simply refusing to cooperate. Legal experts said the strategy's legal merits are questionable, but that the Trump administration may be satisfied with delaying compliance until after the 2020 election.
Trump's lawyers say the House has refused to share copies of the subpoenas it sent to the banks, which has prevented the president from negotiating the scope of the information that lawmakers are demanding. Still, Deutsche Bank and Capital One have provided Trump and his children with descriptions of the subpoenas, which the president's lawyers claim are overly broad.
House Democrats are demanding the records from Deutsche Bank, Capital One and seven other banks as part of a probe of Trump's finances and potential money laundering tied to Russia, according to people familiar with the matter. Deutsche Bank has been a particular target because it has lent some $340 million to Trump.
The case is similar to one Trump filed last week in Washington to block Elijah Cummings, the Maryland Democrat who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, from getting records held by Trump's longtime accounting company Mazars USA LLP.
