In a complaint filed in federal court in Washington on Monday, Trump asked a judge to block the National Archivist from releasing the records to Congress. According to the complaint, the national archivist told Trump that while the records would be submitted to the committee on November 12, “there would be no intervening court order”.
“The committee’s requests are unprecedented in their breadth and scope and are not linked to any legitimate legislative purpose,” Trump said in the complaint.
The White House said last week that it would not support Trump’s efforts to block the National Archives from handing over a tranche of records to Congress.
The chair of the selection committee, Benny Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, and Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican and the panel’s vice chairman, responded in a statement that “the example and the law are on our side.”
“The authority of the selection committee to seek these records is clear,” he said. “We will fight the former president’s attempt to obstruct our investigation, while we continue to successfully advance our investigation on several other fronts.”
The committee, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, has already subpoenaed documents and testimony from former Trump advisers, including political strategist Steve Bannon and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. In addition, the committee asked the National Archives to replace White House documents provided to Trump or Meadows with words such as “rigged” elections or “stealing” elections.
Bannon refused to comply, with his attorney saying he would not cooperate until the committee and Trump reached an agreement on the former president’s claims of privilege.
The committee is set to vote Tuesday night on sending a criminal contempt report against Bannon, who helped run the 2016 Trump campaign and worked for a full House vote in the White House until 2017.
In a letter obtained Monday by Bloomberg News, President Jonathan Sue’s deputy counsel wrote that Bannon’s claim of privilege regarding conversations with former presidents or White House staff after leaving the administration is not justified and “is not in the public interest.” In.”
“At this time we are not aware of any grounds for refusing to appear for your client’s statement,” Su said in the letter.
The committee’s request included all documents and communications related to Trump’s public remarks on January 6, as well as any other public remarks made between the election on November 3 and the inauguration on January 20. The panel requested all photographs, videos and other media, including any digital time stamps taken or recorded inside the White House that day, as well as visitor logs.
Such a sweeping request “would destroy the very fabric of our constitutional separation of powers and invade fundamental privileges designed to uphold the autonomy and functioning of the executive branch,” Trump said in the complaint.
In a statement after filing the complaint, Trump spokesman Taylor Budovich said on Twitter that the lawsuit was “filed in defense of the Constitution, the Office of the President, and the future of our nation, all of which is a shameless unelected committee. trying.”
The White House did not immediately comment on the lawsuit.
Trump’s trial is the latest chapter in a long-running legal battle over the January 6 riots. Separately, Thompson and a coalition of congressional Democrats have filed suit in federal court in Washington, accusing Trump of inciting violence at the Capitol. Trump is also facing a civil trial from police officers who clashed with rioters on January 6.
Thompson has said the panel will look into events at the White House on the day of the riots and later, which occurred when Congress was meeting to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
Committee members have clarified that Trump’s activities that day are the focus of their investigation.
In the months since the riots, the Justice Department has filed criminal charges against hundreds of individual protesters who stormed the Capitol.
Also on Monday, Trump sued onetime “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos, claiming he had filed a defamation suit against him in violation of New York law.
The case is Trump v. Thompson, 21-cv-02769, US District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed. Only the title has been changed.
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