COURTS/DEMS/LEGAL/TRUMP BUSINESS: “For three years, Donald J. Trump has treated the details of his personal and business finances as a closely guarded secret. On Wednesday [5-22-19], those secrets moved two steps closer to becoming public. A federal judge in Manhattan ruled against a request from President Trump to block his longtime lender, Deutsche Bank, from complying with congressional subpoenas seeking his detailed financial records. In Albany, New York lawmakers approved a bill that would allow Congress to obtain Mr. Trump’s state tax returns. Those actions came two days after a federal judge in Washington ruled against Mr. Trump’s bid to quash another congressional subpoena to get his accounting firm to hand over his tax returns and other financial documents. The court rulings and the New York legislation represent the most serious attempts to pierce the veil that surrounds Mr. Trump’s finances. They increase the odds that congressional Democrats, who have become more vocal in their calls to undertake impeachment proceedings against the president, could enter such a fray with ample ammunition about Mr. Trump’s business dealings.”
–Emily Flitter, Jesse McKinley, David Enrich and Nicholas Fandos, “Trump’s Financial Secrets Move Closer to Disclosure,” The New York Times online, May 22, 2019