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The
Republican president is trying to block subpoenas for bank
records, tax returns or other materials demanded by various
Democratic-led House of Representatives committees investigating
corruption or foreign meddling in the U.S. elections process.
The House probes are not part of the Democratic-led impeachment
proceedings against Trump over his dealings with Ukraine.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, a Democrat, is seeking
Trump's tax returns in a criminal investigation of the
president, the Trump Organization and his family real estate
business.
The court will hold oral arguments in March, with rulings due by
the end of June.
"We are pleased that the Supreme Court granted review of the
President’s three pending cases. These cases raise significant
constitutional issues," said Jay Sekulow, one of Trump's
lawyers.
Democratic leaders in the House expressed disappointment that
the justices' decision to hear the cases will result in further
delay.
"Unfortunately, the American people will now have to wait
several more months for final rulings," House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi said in a statement. "We are confident that the Supreme
Court ... will uphold the Constitution, the rulings of the lower
courts and ensure that Congressional oversight can proceed."
A spokesman for Vance declined to comment.
The cases are a test for how the justices view Trump's arguments
that the subpoenas are a threat to the presidency, on the one
hand, and the need for lawmakers or prosecutors for information
to pursue legislation or criminal investigations on the other.
The court has a 5-4 conservative majority including two Trump
appointees, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
The justices' decision to review the legality of the subpoenas
investigating Trump's conduct adds another
politically-contentious issue to a court term that already
includes high-profile cases on abortion, LGBT worker rights, gun
rights and the fate of "dreamer" immigrants brought illegally to
the United States as children.
One of the Trump cases is his appeal of a lower court ruling
allowing a New York grand jury to subpoena his accounting firm
Mazars LLP for his records.
Trump's attorneys said prosecutors could be encouraged to
investigate a president to advance their careers or score
political points if that subpoena is enforced.
Another case concerns a lower court decision in Washington that
endorsed subpoenas issued by the Democratic-led House Oversight
Committee to Mazars.
Trump's lawyers say there was no legislative purpose for the
subpoenas and that the aim was merely to dig for dirt on the
president.
In the third case, the justices will review a lower court ruling
allowing the enforcement of separate House committee subpoenas
targeting Trump-related financial records from Deutsche Bank AG
<DBKGn.DE> and Capital One Financial Corp <COF.N>.
The court on Friday extended its hold on the lower court ruling,
which it had temporarily blocked last week.
The lower court rulings in the congressional cases, if left
intact, would bring House Democrats closer to getting some of
the details about Trump's business interests.
That outcome would also amount to a major blow for the
president, who, unlike past presidents, has refused to publicly
disclose his tax returns.
Legal experts say the justices often hear cases when the
president asks them to, but that does not mean Trump will
ultimately prevail.
(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley and Andrew Chung; Additional
reporting by Karen Freifeld; editing by Grant McCool)
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