Former president Donald Trump filed suit on Friday against the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol in a bid to block the panel’s subpoena for testimony and documents issued last month.
The 41-page complaint filed in federal court in Florida argues that the subpoena is invalid because it lacks a “valid legislative purpose,” is overly broad, and “infringes on executive privilege” and Trump’s First Amendment rights. The suit also argues that the committee lacks the authority to issue subpoenas – an argument that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and several other judges have already rejected.
“Consistent with the constitutional separation of powers and learned opinion of the Department of Justice, as stated for the past fifty years and reiterated just this past September, President Trump asserted his absolute immunity from compelled testimony before Congress regarding his actions while serving as President,” Trump’s lawyers write.
The lawsuit, filed a few days before the date the subpoena required Trump to appear before committee for a deposition, claims that Trump “offered to consider responding in writing to specific written questions submitted to him by the committee.”
The panel’s subpoena requested Trump to provide documents regarding 19 different topics, including his communications with Roger Stone, former Secret Service agent Anthony Ornato, attorneys John Eastman and Sidney Powell, Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and over a dozen other officials and associates.
A spokesperson for the committee declined to comment, and it’s unclear what the panel will do next to try to enforce the subpoena.
(c) 2022, The Washington Post · Jacqueline Alemany
