A federal court has ordered Deutsche Bank to turn over documents detailing President Trump’s finances to Congress.
The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals issued the ruling Tuesday. The court’s decision was a victory for Democrats in Congress, who are intent on investigating Trump, his business, and his family’s finances. Trump has seven days to appeal the court’s decision.
Two Democratic-controlled House committees, the Committee on Financial Services and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, subpoenaed Deutsche Bank and Capital One for Trump’s financial records on April 11. Trump sued the banks to thwart the subpoenas.
The 2nd Circuit’s decision approved the documents requested in the wide-ranging subpoenas and demanded they be handed over with a few exceptions. The court warned against releasing documents that contain the personal information of employees and others that have no bearing on the legislature’s investigation.
“The Committees have advanced no reason why the legislative purposes they are pursuing require disclosure of such sensitive personal information,” the court ruled.
“We have not located any decision that has considered whether Congress is entitled to require disclosure of sensitive personal information that might be swept up in a collection of business‐related financial documents legitimately sought in aid of legislative purposes,” the court continued. “At least in the absence of a compelling reason for such disclosure, we decline to permit it in this case.”
The court also said that other documents that are of little value to the committee’s purposes should not be released.
