Judge in Trump records case skips preliminaries, moves to trial

A Washington judge presiding over President Donald Trump’s attempt to block a House committee from getting tax records from his longtime accounting firm, Mazars USA LLP, said he’ll have enough information to issue a final ruling after a May 14 hearing.

Trump and his umbrella business, the Trump Organization, sued the Committee on Oversight and Reform and the accounting firm last month to stop the turnover of the records after the committee issued a subpoena. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta on Thursday said with the papers before him, and perhaps an additional set to be filed by May 13, he’ll be able to rule quickly.

Mehta’s order dispenses with a longer and arguably redundant process of hearing motions for preliminary and then permanent injunctions.

“The court can discern no benefit from an additional round of legal arguments,” the judge wrote. “Nor is there an obvious need to delay ruling on the merits.”

President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with the National Association of Manufacturers in the White House
U.S. President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with the National Association of Manufacturers in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, March 31, 2017. Trumpannounced that 93% of manufacturing industry executivessurveyed by NAM, a lobbying group for the manufacturing industry, said they were optimistic on the future of the economy. Photographer: Olivier Douliery/Pool via Bloomberg

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