Trump's lawsuit seeking to block congressional subpoena is baseless: US House Oversight Committee Chairman

United States House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings has slammed President Donald Trump's lawsuit seeking to block a congressional subpoena investigating his personal and business tax returns as "baseless".

"The President has a long history of trying to use baseless lawsuits to attack his adversaries, but there is simply no valid legal basis to interfere with this duly authorized subpoena from Congress," said Cummings in a statement on Monday.

The statement comes after Trump and his business organization sued Cummings on Monday to block a congressional subpoena issued by the Oversight Committee head targeting eight years of the president's financial records.

The complaint accused the Democrat Oversight chief, along with House Democrats, of declaring an "all-out political war” against Trump and using subpoenas as their “weapon of choice” while having no "legitimate legislative purpose" for the subpoena.

"Instead of working with the president to pass bipartisan legislation that would actually benefit Americans, House Democrats are singularly obsessed with finding something they can use to damage the president politically," read the lawsuit.

Last week, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee subpoenaed the Mazars USA accounting firm which Trump had used to prepare some of his financial statements, according to the committee.

Facing Trump's lawsuit on Monday, Cummings further slammed the measure as being merely "political talking points" rather than "a reasoned legal brief".

"The White House is engaged in unprecedented stonewalling on all fronts, and they have refused to produce a single document or witness to the Oversight Committee during this entire year," he added.

The scrutiny over Trump's tax returns comes after a redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 448-page report into Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election, as well as Donald Trump and his teams wrongdoings, was released last Thursday.

The investigation failed to determine that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election, but it detailed 10 cases of potential obstruction of justice but ultimately did not charge Trump with any crime. 

Congressional Democrats have, however, called for steps to be taken to see all of Mueller’s evidence from his inquiry.

PressTV-Democrats push for impeachment of Trump

Congressional Democrats have taken a legal step to see all of Mueller’s report, with some members pushing for the impeachment of Trump just 18 months before the 2020 presidential election.

House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat, also issued a subpoena on Friday to the Justice Department to release the full Mueller report, rejecting the redacted version that he said “leaves most of Congress in the dark.”

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