WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block a House subpoena for his financial records, asking the justices to insulate him from an investigation for the second time in as many days.
A day after asking the Supreme Court to stop his tax returns from being turned over to a New York prosecutor, Trump on Friday filed an emergency request designed to ensure House Democrats don't get access to his financial records while he presses an appeal, according to his lawyer, Jay Sekulow.
Together, the two cases are pulling the Supreme Court into the divisive battle over alleged wrongdoing in Trump's personal and business dealings. The cases arrive as House Democrats are pressing an impeachment investigation of Trump.
A federal appeals court in Washington in October said the House Oversight and Reform Committee could subpoena eight years of Trump's financial records from Mazars, his accounting company. The subpoena doesn't explicitly ask for Trump's tax returns.
On a 2-1 vote, the appeals court said the House panel had a legitimate legislative purpose for seeking the documents. The committee says it's considering revising the federal ethics-in-government laws.
A dissenting judge said in the Oct. 11 ruling that Congress can't investigate whether the president broke the law unless it is invoking its impeachment power, something the committee hadn't yet done. A larger panel of judges then voted not to reconsider the case.
In the New York case, Trump on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to hear his appeal, arguing that the president has broad immunity from criminal investigations while in office. Trump told the justices he is fighting a "politically motivated" subpoena that seeks "highly intrusive" records and could interfere with his work as president.
New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance is investigating whether the Trump Organization falsified business records to disguise hush payments to two women who claimed they had sex with him before he took office.
