The top Democrats on three House committees — Oversight, Financial Services and Intelligence — asked Capital One last month to provide documents related to a wide variety of entities controlled by the President, as part of what they said were investigations into Trump’s potential conflicts of interest, Emoluments Clause concerns, and “any counterintelligence threats.”
In response, Politico reported Thursday, Capital One told the chairmen in a letter dated March 21 that they would have to subpoena the company for records they wanted, “[g]iven the confidentiality obligations we have as a financial institution.”
“As requested,” a lawyer for the company wrote, “we are preserving the documents and materials listed in the request attached to your letter.”
Politico also reported on a rival letter from Trump allies Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Mark Meadows (R-NC), who said the Democrats’ request “has the veneer of a fishing expedition.”
House Democrats have a number of related requests outstanding, including in letters to Trump’s accountant, requesting financial information, and to the IRS, requesting the President’s tax returns and those of several of his business entities.
The requests, Politico noted, follow testimony from Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen that Trump had in the past artificially inflated and deflated the value of his assets as necessary to suit his financial ends.
