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Page Number: 15

10 

TRUMP v. MAZARS USA, LLP 

Opinion of the Court 

In 1995, a Senate committee subpoenaed notes taken by
a White House attorney at a meeting with President Clin-
ton’s  personal  lawyers  concerning  the  Whitewater  contro-
versy.  The President resisted the subpoena on the ground 
that the notes were protected by attorney-client privilege, 
leading to “long and protracted” negotiations and a Senate 
threat to seek judicial enforcement of the subpoena.  S. Rep. 
No.  104–204,  pp.  16–17  (1996).  Eventually  the  parties
reached an agreement, whereby President Clinton avoided 
the threatened suit, agreed to turn over the notes, and ob-
tained the Senate’s concession that he had not waived any 
privileges.  Ibid.;  see  L.  Fisher,  Congressional  Research 
Service, Congressional Investigations: Subpoenas and Con-
tempt Power 16–18 (2003). 

Congress and the President maintained this tradition of
negotiation  and  compromise—without  the  involvement  of
this Court—until the present dispute.  Indeed, from Presi-
dent Washington until now, we have never considered a dis-
pute over a congressional subpoena for the President’s rec-
ords.  And,  according  to  the  parties,  the  appellate  courts 
have addressed such a subpoena only once, when a Senate
committee  subpoenaed  President  Nixon  during  the  Wa-
tergate scandal.  See infra, at 13 (discussing Senate Select 
Committee  on  Presidential  Campaign  Activities  v.  Nixon, 
498  F. 2d  725  (CADC  1974)  (en  banc)).    In  that  case,  the 
court refused to enforce the subpoena, and the Senate did 
not seek review by this Court.

This dispute therefore represents a significant departure
from  historical  practice.    Although  the  parties  agree  that 
this particular controversy is justiciable, we recognize that 
it is the first of its kind to reach this Court; that disputes of 
this sort can raise important issues concerning relations be-
tween  the  branches;  that  related  disputes  involving  con-
gressional  efforts  to  seek  official  Executive  Branch  infor-
mation recur on a regular basis, including in the context of