Trump asks appeals court to block subpoena for his accounting records

Trump on Monday called on the court to overturn a ruling that his company must submit to the House of Representatives his financial records from before he was president.

Trump’s lawyers argued that the May 20 decision by US District Judge Amit Mehta was flawed and should be reversed.

"It is simply not fathomable that a Constitution that grants Congress the power to remove a President for reasons including criminal behavior would deny Congress the power to investigate him for unlawful conduct - past or present - even without formally opening an impeachment inquiry," Judge Mehta said in his ruling.

The House Oversight Committee has said it needs Trump’s financial records to examine whether he has conflicts of interest or broke the law by not disentangling himself from his business holdings.

Trump's lawyers said Congress does not have the powers to investigate the president’s alleged legal violations.

"The Committee admits that the whole point is to discover whether the President may have engaged in illegal conduct," the lawyers said. "It is an effort to investigate alleged legal violations—power that is vested in the Executive, not Congress."

Trump's lawyers told the court that if it affirmed Mehta's ruling, it would be approving a "limitless" view of the congressional power to investigate the president.