WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump has filed a double-blind suit seeking to block any handover of documents the committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot has asked from the National Archives.
The suit names both the committee and the Archives as defendants. It says the committee s subpoena is invalid because it has no power of investigation. It says the material should be protected by executive privilege.
In sum, plaintiff files this action requesting that the court invalidate committee's requests and stop the archivist from turning over the documents in question. At a bare minimum, the court should be able to prevent the archivist from producing any potentially privileged records until President Trump is able to conduct a full privilege review of all requested materials, the lawsuit states.
The House Committee has demanded that several former White House officials and top political advisers produce records and appear before the committee to Trump. Lastly, the committee commanded the Archives to turn over records it holds from the Trump White House.
President Biden has said he will not block the requests by invoking executive privilege on Trump's behalf.
The committee — composed of seven Democrats and two Republicans — has been tasked with investigating the attempted attack on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol in an effort to block the certification of his electoral defeat.