Ever since President Trump took office, Democrats have clung to the Mueller investigation as their sole beacon of hope. Now that the Mueller investigation is complete, though, and Trump has been cleared of any and all charges, desperation within the Democratic Party has ratcheted up to an 11.
It seems Democrats are finally starting to recognize that they are losing this war. However, rather than throwing in the towel and accepting the fact that defeating Trump in 2020 is the only way to remove him from office, House Democrats are trying a new strategy—and this one is the dirtiest trick of all.
With the Mueller investigation dead in the water, House Democrats have now moved on to their own unlawful investigations into Trump’s personal finances – a dirty political tactic that has no place in U.S. politics. In typical Trump fashion, though, the President is fighting fire with fire.
After House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) attempted to subpoena Trump’s personal accounting firm Mazars, Trump fought back by filing a restraining order against Cummings while Trump’s lawyers are fighting to block what they argue is an unlawful subpoena.
First, it’s important to understand that Trump is fighting against Cummings and his subpoena as a private citizen of the United States and not as the President. The information that Cummings is demanding in his subpoena has nothing to do with the White House or Trump’s actions as President.
Instead, Cummings is trying to force Trump, his entire family, his business partners, and his employees to turn over private information that the government has no right to see. Since Democrats are now attacking Donald Trump the U.S. citizen instead of President Trump, Trump is fighting back as a citizen by filing a restraining order against Cummings and taking the issue to court.
Trump’s lawyers argue that this new probe into Trump’s personal finances has “no legislative purpose” and have said that, “Democrats are using their new control of congressional committees to investigate every aspect of President Trump’s personal finances, businesses, and even his family. 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.”
In the court filings against Elijah Cummings, Trump’s lawyers went on to say, “There is no possible legislation at the end of this tunnel; indeed, the Chairman does not claim otherwise. Its goal is to expose Plaintiffs’ private financial information for the sake of exposure, with the hope that it will turn up something that Democrats can use as a political tool against the President now and in the 2020 election.”
When Democrats took control of the House in 2018, there was little doubt what they would do with their newfound power. As anyone could have predicted, House Democrats have chosen to use their time and power investigating and obstructing rather than legislating and helping move the country forward.
Now that Democrats are no longer able to pursue investigations into Trump’s actions given that Mueller’s final report cleared him of any wrongdoing as President and as a Presidential candidate, they’ve moved on to investigating Trump’s actions as a private citizen.
Investigating a private citizen, however, is much different from investigating a President, and this new battle opens up many new legal avenues for Trump – including simply filing a restraining order against the man responsible for these absurd investigations. After all, private citizens have a right to keep their personal information private and likewise have many courses of action to ensure that the government is not able to force them into turning this information over.
Nevertheless, Cummings remains confident that he will be able to subpoena Trump’s accounting firm for all the information he desires, saying, “They [Mazars] have told us that they will provide the information pretty much when they have a subpoena. And we’ll get them a subpoena.”
Trump, however, isn’t going to let this unlawful harassment go unanswered. Since first announcing his intention to run for President, Trump has never been one to back down from a fight. Now, in all likelihood, Elijah Cummings is about to be the next in a long line of politicians who have picked a fight with President Trump and come out on the losing end.
