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8 

TRUMP v. MAZARS USA, LLP 

Opinion of the Court 

early Congress.  In 1792, a House committee requested Ex-
ecutive Branch documents pertaining to General St. Clair’s
campaign against the Indians in the Northwest Territory, 
which had concluded in an utter rout of federal forces when 
they were caught by surprise near the present-day border
between Ohio and Indiana.  See T. Taylor, Grand Inquest:
The  Story  of  Congressional  Investigations  19–23  (1955).
Since this was the first such request from Congress, Presi-
dent Washington called a Cabinet meeting, wishing to take
care  that  his  response  “be  rightly  conducted”  because  it 
could “become a precedent.”  1 Writings of Thomas Jeffer-
son 189 (P. Ford ed. 1892). 

The meeting, attended by the likes of Alexander Hamil-
ton,  Thomas  Jefferson,  Edmund  Randolph,  and  Henry
Knox,  ended  with  the  Cabinet  of  “one  mind”:    The  House 
had authority to “institute inquiries” and “call for papers” 
but the President could “exercise a discretion” over disclo-
sures,  “communicat[ing]  such  papers  as  the  public  good
would  permit”  and  “refus[ing]”  the  rest.  Id.,  at  189–190. 
President Washington then dispatched Jefferson to speak
to individual congressmen and “bring them by persuasion
into the right channel.”  Id., at 190.  The discussions were 
apparently fruitful, as the House later narrowed its request
and the documents were supplied without recourse to the 
courts.  See  3  Annals  of  Cong.  536  (1792);  Taylor,  supra, 
at 24. 

Jefferson, once he became President, followed Washing-
ton’s precedent.  In early 1807, after Jefferson had disclosed 
that  “sundry  persons”  were  conspiring  to  invade  Spanish
territory in North America with a private army, 16 Annals
of Cong. 686–687, the House requested that the President 
produce any information in his possession touching on the 
conspiracy  (except  for  information  that  would  harm  the 
public interest), id., at 336, 345, 359.  Jefferson chose not to 
divulge the entire “voluminous” correspondence on the sub-