Deutsche Bank branch in Italy. Photo: Mike Scarcella / ALM

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to deny a stay preventing Congress from enforcing subpoenas seeking financial records on President Donald Trump and his business from two banks, or to expedite the case if the justices do issue a stay.

House general counsel Douglas Letter said in Wednesday's filing that subpoenas issued by two Democratic-controlled committees to Deutsche Bank and Capital One are for "legitimate legislative purposes" and should be enforced without further delay.

The subpoenas targeted non-privileged records related to Trump, his businesses and family members and will aid the House's efforts to root out foreign influence in the 2020 presidential elections, Letter wrote.

"Legislative efforts to secure the financial system from abuse have obvious importance. And nothing is more urgent than efforts to guard against foreign influence in our systems for electing officials, particularly given the upcoming 2020 elections," Letter said.

Wednesday's filing comes after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg temporarily stayed a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which ordered "prompt compliance" with the set of subpoenas from the House Financial Services Committee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Ginsburg's order remains in place until Friday evening.

The Second Circuit's split ruling found a "clear and substantial" public interest in enforcing the subpoenas and directed a lower court to implement procedures to protect some "sensitive personal information" and documents. Unlike other rulings involving Trump's financial records, however, it did not delay the effect of the decision, pending an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Trump attorney William Consovoy, of Consovoy McCarthy, on Dec. 6 filed an emergency petition, saying House lawyers rejected his request to speed up the appeals process in exchange for a stay.

He said the Deutsche Bank litigation closely mirrored a case in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld similar subpoenas of Trump's accounting firm, Mazars USA, but blocked their immediate enforcement.

That case has also been petitioned to the Supreme Court, along with a separate challenge from the Second Circuit involving grand jury subpoena issued by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.

As in the Mazars case, Consovoy argued, the subpoenas of Deutsche Bank and Capital One raised important separation of powers issues, and the banks should not be forced to produce documents until the justices are given a chance to weigh in.

"The issue at this stage is straightforward: whether the president will be allowed to petition for review of an unprecedented demand for his personal papers, or whether he will be deprived of that opportunity because the committees issued these subpoenas to third parties with no incentive to test their validity," Consovoy wrote in the petition. "This choice should be easy."

On Wednesday, Letter distinguished the Deutsche Bank case from the Mazars case, saying that it turned on a separate set of facts. If the high court were to grant a further stay in the case, Letter said the justices should treat the papers already submitted as a petition for cert or condition any stay on the "expeditious filing" of such a request.

Speed and timing could be an issue for the various investigations seeking Trump's financial records, which is why legal scholars have said the president's attorneys have tried to use procedural hurdles to delay litigation. If Democrats were to lose control of the House in the 2020 elections, the chances of Republicans continuing with the vast investigations into Trump, his finances and his administration are slim to none.

Read more:

After Circuit Court Loss, Trump's Lawyers Could Delay a Final Ruling in Dems' Subpoena Case

2nd Circuit Rejects Trump Bid to Block House Subpoenas for Financial Records

Trump's Lawyers Make Their Case at SCOTUS to Keep Financial Records Secret

Consovoy McCarthy Makes an Outsized Mark on Washington