Three powerful House Democrats asked Capital One Financial last month for financial records related to President Trump, including any that were given to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
The bank responded on March 21 that it was preserving the documents requested but would hand them over only under subpoena, according to a copy of the letter from Brent Timberlake, the company’s counsel.
The request came from Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (Md.), Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (Calif.) and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (Calif.).
On Thursday, Oversight’s ranking Republican, Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio), and lead Republican on the government operations subcommittee, Rep. Mark Meadows (N.C.), decried the Democrats’ request as a “fishing expedition.”
“Probes aimed simply at harming the electoral prospects of a future candidate for office are improper on their face,” they wrote to Capital One Financial CEO Richard D. Fairbank.
They also complained that they weren’t consulted before the Democrats sent Fairbank a request on March 11 requesting a wide range of materials related to Trump’s finances and business holdings.
News of the request comes a day after House Democrats dramatically ramped up their investigations into president Trump.
On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee voted to authorize Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) to subpoena Mueller’s full report. Hours later, Ways and Means Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.) officially requested Trump’s tax returns from the IRS, setting off a wave of GOP protests.
Additionally, Cummings said Wednesday that Trump’s New York-based accounting firm will respond to a request for 10 years’ worth of records from the firm’s work with Trump if it receives a congressional subpoena. His committee had asked the company, Mazars USA, for copies of “statements of financial condition” and audits prepared for Trump and several of his companies, including the one that owns the Trump International Hotel in downtown Washington.
The panel also requested supporting documents used to produce the reports and communications between the firm and Trump.
For more than a decade, Mazars USA and a predecessor firm signed off on financial statements for Trump that he used when seeking loans. Some of the statements included frequent exaggerations or inaccuracies of Trump’s assets and were accompanied by a note from the firm saying it was not responsible for the accuracy of the information.
Democrats are investigating Trump for conflicts of interest and whether he sought to use his presidency to benefit him financially.
