The bus from Crazytown was right on time Monday. From the Washington Post:

The lawsuit seeks a court order to prevent Trump’s accounting firm from complying with what his lawyers say is an improper use of subpoena power by congressional Democrats. “Democrats are using their new control of congressional committees to investigate every aspect of President Trump’s personal finances, businesses, and even his family,” the filing by Trump claims. “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.”

For more than a decade, Mazars and a predecessor firm signed off on financial statements for Trump that he used when seeking loans. Some of the statements include frequent exaggerations or inaccuracies and were accompanied by a note from the firm saying it was not responsible for the accuracy of the information. The Oversight Committee on March 20 asked the company 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.

In other words, the president* is treating Congress the way he treated all those contractors he stiffed—namely, to money-whip them in court until they can't afford to go on. The problem, of course, is that the Congress is not going to run out of money, and Elijah Cummings is not a glazier in Paramus afraid of an expensive briefcase.

In the complaint filed Monday, Trump’s lawyers argue that the subpoena of Mazars “lacks a legitimate legislative purpose” and is seeking information about Trump as a private citizen, before he took office.“With this subpoena, the Oversight Committee is instead assuming the powers of the Department of Justice, investigating (dubious and partisan) allegations of illegal conduct by private individuals outside of government,” it says. “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.”

It always was going to be the money. Replace the phrase "with the hope" in that last sentence with "guaran-damn-teeing," and you've pretty much got it. It's in the money where real gold is.

Earlier this month, the Treasury Department missed a deadline to hand over Trump’s tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee. White House officials have also been digging in their heels on other requests related to Trump’s actions as president. The administration has signaled that it does not plan to turn over information being sought about how particular individuals received their security clearances, Trump’s meetings with foreign leaders, and other topics that they plan to argue are subject to executive privilege, according to several aides familiar with internal discussions.

I do not play enough of a constitutional lawyer on this blog to determine if this lawsuit has any merit; my instinct tells me that congressional oversight powers, especially as regards finances, are pretty broad and unassailable. But this whopping big nuisance suit shows again that there's nothing that the folks at Camp Runamuck won't do to keep secret how this president* made his money. Something else to talk about in the hearings leading to impeachment.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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