[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] Former U.S. President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit to prevent the release of White House documents related to the unprecedented January 6 Capitol riot.
On the 18th (local time), according to the Washington Post (WP) and others, former President Trump recently submitted a complaint to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol breach and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), seeking to block the disclosure of related White House documents from that time.
Trump, who was impeached amid allegations of inciting the congressional riot by claiming election fraud, was acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate, but the Democrat-led House has launched a special committee to continue investigations for fact-finding.
In a 26-page complaint, Trump and his legal team criticized the committee’s request for White House documents as excessively broad and lacking a legislative purpose such as use in drafting legislation.
The complaint stated that releasing the White House documents would violate presidential confidentiality privileges and that it was wrong for the committee not to share the document request details with former Trump administration officials.
Trump’s side argued, "Our law does not allow such impulsive and unreasonable actions targeting former presidents and their associates," and pointed out that the committee "illegally requested an excessively broad range of materials without basis, intending to harass former President Trump and senior officials of the Trump administration."
Regarding President Joe Biden’s decision not to invoke presidential confidentiality privileges and to hand over initial White House documents related to the congressional riot to the committee, they claimed it was "nothing more than a political ploy targeting former President Trump."
In response, it was pointed out that the confidentiality privilege applies only to the sitting president, thus there are serious flaws in Trump’s claims.
Norman Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former White House counsel during the Barack Obama administration, said, "If Trump were still president, such claims might be accepted, but unless the sitting president with authority refuses (to provide the documents), such claims are bound to fail."
The House committee has not immediately commented on Trump’s lawsuit.
The committee has recently intensified pressure to investigate former President Trump and his closest aides. It is expected to decide on criminal charges against Steve Bannon, Trump’s "former strategist," who refused to comply with a subpoena on the 19th.
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