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In clash with Congress, weak legal case may still help Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — For all of President Donald Trump’s talk of winning, his lawyers are using a legal argument that many scholars say is a pretty sure loser as his team tries to defy congressional attempts to investigate him. Yet they may end up delaying the investigations with their argument, and that could be a win in itself.

In courts in New York and Washington, Trump is attempting to beat back subpoenas by Congress to get financial records from accountants and banks Trump and his family do business with. His argument is congressional Democrats have no “legitimate legislative purpose” in seeking his records.

Congressional investigations are legitimate only if there is legislation that might result from them, the lawsuits say in identical terms.

So far a federal judge in Washington has seemed unimpressed with Trump’s attempt to prevent Mazars USA, an accountant for the president and Trump Organization, from turning over subpoenaed records to Congress. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta had a hearing in the case Tuesday and could rule at any time on Trump’s request.

Separately, a hearing is set for Wednesday in federal court in New York in a lawsuit Trump, his business and family have filed against Deutsche Bank and Capital One to prevent them from complying with subpoenas from the House Financial Services and intelligence panels for banking and financial records.

The court argument is part of a broader White House strategy to resist all congressional oversight following special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. “Congressional investigations are intended to obtain information to aid in evaluating potential legislation, not to harass political opponents,” White House counsel Pat Cipollone wrote in a letter to House members Wednesday.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday he won’t comply with a congressional subpoena for six years of Trump’s tax returns. He cited the absence of a “legitimate legislative purpose” as his reason.

The White House approach finds little support among scholars who say Congress’ authority to investigate is broad and that in the past century the Supreme Court has never found a problem with a congressional investigation for lack of legislative purpose.

But even if judges in both cases rule against Trump, he won’t go down without a fight that might take months or even years of appeals to resolve. Ohio State law professor Peter M. Shane described it as Trump’s lawyers “trying to run out the clock until the election.”

“Why should this misleading argument be any different from any other misleading argument?” Shane said, adding: “The reason they’re not making stronger arguments is because stronger arguments aren’t available to them.”

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