Former President Donald Trump on Monday filed a lawsuit claiming executive privilege over White House documents subpoenaed by the House January 6 committee, CNN reports.
Trump filed a lawsuit against the committee and the National Archives, which was subpoenaed by the panel earlier this year.
The lawsuit comes after the Biden administration declined to claim executive privilege over Trump-era records. Trump is seeking to block the release of about 40 documents.
The White House said Monday that Trump "abused the office of the presidency and attempted to subvert a peaceful transfer of power."
"The former president's actions represented a unique -- and existential -- threat to our democracy that can't be swept under the rug. As President Biden determined, the constitutional protections of executive privilege should not be used to shield information that reflects a clear and apparent effort to subvert the Constitution itself," White House spokesman Mike Gwin said in a statement.
Trump claims no “legitimate” purpose:
Trump’s lawsuit claims that the House subpoenas "are unprecedented in their breadth and scope and are untethered from any legitimate legislative purpose."
The complaint also claims that Biden’s refusal to assert executive privilege is a “political ploy to accommodate his partisan allies."
"Polling shows Biden's approval cratering and 2022 slipping out of Democrats' grasp -- no wonder the Democrats and the media want to distract America from: The surrender in Afghanistan, skyrocketing inflation, a border crisis, crippling COVID mandates, and a stalled legislative agenda," Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich told CNN.
Committee says Trump is obstructing probe:
Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson and Vice-Chair Liz Cheney said in a statement that "the former President's clear objective is to stop the Select Committee from getting to the facts about January 6th and his lawsuit is nothing more than an attempt to delay and obstruct our probe. Precedent and law are on our side."
The committee leaders said they would "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."
