Court finds broad authority for impeachment inquiry

Oct. 19, 2019, 8:32 AM EDT
By Danny Cevallos

A federal appeals court ruled last week that President Donald Trump's accounting firm must turn over financial records requested by a House committee.

In April, the House Oversight and Reform Committee subpoenaed the firm, Mazars USA, for documents related to Trump's accounts going back to January 2009. His lawyers fought back with a lawsuit in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that argued Congress had no legitimate legislative purpose for getting the materials.

In a 2-1 ruling, a three-judge panel of the court disagreed but put a temporary hold on the legal effect of its decision to allow Trump's lawyers to appeal. A large part of the court’s opinion, which runs more than 100 pages, can be distilled into three questions: Is the Oversight Committee pursuing a legislative, as opposed to a law-enforcement, objective? Is the committee investigating a subject on which constitutional legislation could be enacted? And does the subpoena seek information relevant to the legislative inquiry?

... the court held that even a mere congressional interest in past crimes can qualify as a constitutional interest in remedial legislation. So broad is Congress' power that even an investigation into the prior bad conduct of a single person can be valid when the objective is to enact legislation to fix the problem ...

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/ruling-trump-finances-court-finds-broad-authority-impeachment-inquiry-n1068226