Trump settles with House Oversight Democrats in dispute over financial records subpoena

Washington — Former President Donald Trump has reached a settlement with Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee and his accounting firm, Mazars, in a lengthy court battle over a 2019 subpoena for years of his financial records, according to a court filing Wednesday.

Lawyers for the former president informed the federal appeals court in Washington of the deal, which they said was reached Tuesday, but did not provide additional information on its terms. The filing came weeks after a three-judge panel on the appeals court upheld the subpoena for years of Trump's financial records, but narrowed Democrats' request. 

Trump last month asked the full D.C. Circuit to rehear the case, but that request was withdrawn following the agreement with the Oversight panel.

Bloomberg first reported the settlement. 

Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney indicated in a statement that the agreement to end the litigation requires Mazars to turn over key financial records.

"These documents will inform the committee's efforts to get to the bottom of former President Trump's egregious conduct and ensure that future presidents do not abuse their position of power for personal gain," she said.

Under the settlement, Trump agreed not to appeal the ruling from the appeals court panel and Mazars agreed to comply with the order and produce documents requested "as expeditiously as possible," according to the committee.

The long-running legal fight between Trump and House Democrats began in April 2019 after the Oversight Committee issued a subpoena to Mazars to turn over an array of financial information for Trump and several of his business entities for an eight-year span.

Trump challenged the subpoena in federal court, and the district court and U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined to invalidate Democrats' subpoena. The former president appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, which sent the dispute back to lower courts for more proceedings in July 2020.

With the start of the new Congress in January 2021, Maloney reissued the subpoena to Mazars for the financial records. But Trump, again challenging the request, lost in federal district court. 

While the three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit upheld the committee's authority to subpoena some of Trump's financial records, the appeals court said in its July 8 ruling that it "cannot sustain the breadth" of lawmakers' request.

Efforts by the Oversight Committee to obtain years of the former president's financial information are separate from those being pursued by the House Ways and Means Committee, which has sought five years of federal income tax returns for Trump and several of his business entities from the Treasury Department.

A unanimous three-judge panel for the D.C. Circuit sided with Democratic lawmakers last month in their quest for the tax records, ruling the Ways and Means can obtain the information. Trump's legal team asked the full D.C. Circuit to reconsider the decision.