The D.C. Circuit is moving quickly to hear the momentous case that will determine whether the House can acquire eight years of President Donald Trump’s financial documents that are held by his longtime accounting firm.
In a brief scheduling order Thursday (May 23), the court set oral argument for July 12 and disclosed the three judges that will hear the case. They are Judge Tatel, a Clinton appointee; Judge Millett, an Obama appointee; and most intriguingly, Judge Rao, a Trump appointee and the court’s newest judge.
The case, Trump v. Mazars USA, involves a subpoena from the House Oversight and Reform Committee seeking Trump’s tax and accounting records as part of the committee’s investigation into Trump’s financial dealings. The president and his business organization are seeking to block the subpoena.
In a 41-page opinion on Monday that repudiated Trump’s legal arguments, a D.C. district judge, Amit Mehta, ruled that the subpoena should stand. Trump appealed immediately to the D.C. Circuit.
The House oversight committee agreed not to enforce the subpoena if the D.C. Circuit ordered an expedited schedule for the appeal. The court did so on Thursday—and in fact designated an even faster schedule than what the parties had requested. That means Mazars is under no obligation to produce the records while the appeal is pending.
Under the court’s scheduling order, Trump’s lawyers must file their opening brief by June 10, the House oversight committee must file its opposition brief by July 1, and Trump’s reply brief is due July 9.
The July 12 hearing will be a rare summer argument for the court, which typically does not hear new cases during the summer except in extraordinary circumstances.
All eyes will be on Rao, who spent two years in the Trump administration as the White House regulatory czar before Trump appointed her to fill Brett Kavanaugh’s seat on the D.C. Circuit. She took the bench in March and has heard only six cases so far—and the court has not yet ruled in any of them. Conceivably, the first decision in which Rao participates could come in Mazars on an issue of enormous sensitivity to her former boss.
Here is the full scheduling order:
