An attorney for former President Donald Trump filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday suing the January 6 House Select Committee and the National Archives for their “illegal records request.”
The lawsuit claims that the committee “has decided to harass President Trump and senior members of his administration (among others) by sending an illegal, unfounded and overboard records request to the Archivist of the United States.”
Representative Bennie Thompson and Archivist David Ferriero are also a target of the suit.
The suit says the committee is requesting an undue plethora of information, a majority of which is irrelevant, overly vast, or just plain illegal in nature. The sheer amount of requested documents would be “unduly burdensome” as a substantial amount of time is necessary to examine them properly.
The committee is accused of a political ploy against Trump, their request holding no legitimate legislative purpose to override his claims of executive privilege.
Jesse Binnall filed the suit alleging that “The Committee’s request amounts to nothing less than a vexatious, illegal fishing expedition openly endorsed by Biden and designed to unconstitutionally investigate President Trump and his administration. Our laws do not permit such an impulsive, egregious action against a former President and his close advisors.”
The suit comes as no surprise. Trump has been clear in his rebuffing of the investigation in its entirety. He even requested that his former officials keep their mouths shut on the matter. One of them, Steve Bannon, has obliged and refused to comply with the committee’s subpoena and is now facing legal repercussions.
The lawsuit claims Trump has executive privilege that Biden intentionally rebuked when he permitted the National Archives to release the requested documents. Executive privilege is awarded to sitting presidents, allowing them to keep certain documents or discussions with advisers about official duties private.
Biden’s administration argues that former presidents have no right to this executive privilege, but the Supreme Court ruled otherwise decades ago. Former President Richard Nixon was the catalyst of a Supreme Court ruling that determined former presidents have some authority to assert executive privilege.
Nonetheless, the committee intends to fight the suit.
Thompson and fellow committee member Representative Liz Cheney issued an official statement accusing Trump of delaying and obstructing their probe. They are confident Biden will continue to back them, stating that history is on their side.
“The Select Committee’s authority to seek these records is clear. We’ll fight the former President’s attempt to obstruct our investigation while we continue to push ahead successfully with our probe on a number of other fronts.”
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