Former President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit at the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeking to block the release of White House records from his administration to the Congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot.

What You Need To Know

  • Donald Trump filed a lawsuit at the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeking to block the release of White House records from his administration to the Congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot

  • The lawsuit names both the Jan. 6 panel and its chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, as well as the National Archives and David Ferriero, the Archivist of the United States

  • According to the complaint, the former president’s attorney said the requests were “unprecedented in their breadth and scope"

  • Lawmakers have already sent subpoenas to multiple past Trump aides, including close adviser Steve Bannon, who last week defied the subpoena

The news was first reported by Politico.

The lawsuit names both the Jan. 6 panel and its chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, as well as the National Archives and David Ferriero, the Archivist of the United States.

According to a copy of the complaint obtained by Politico, the former president’s attorney said the requests were “unprecedented in their breadth and scope and are untethered from any legitimate legislative purpose.” 

Trump said in a letter sent to the committee last week that he intended to assert executive privilege in the congressional investigation, a move that could prevent the testimony of onetime aides. The letter also made clear that Trump also planned to protect presidential communications from being shared with Congress by invoking the same privileges. 

The committee demanded a broad range of executive branch papers related to intelligence gathered before the attack, security preparations during and before the siege, the pro-Trump rallies held that day and Trump’s false claims that he won the election, among other matters.

Trump’s lawsuit says the “boundless requests included over fifty individual requests for documents and information, and mentioned more than thirty individuals, including those working inside and outside government.” The suit says the request could include “conversations with (or about) foreign leaders, attorney work product, the most sensitive of national security secrets, along with any and all privileged communications among a pool of potentially hundreds of people.”

But because Trump no longer is in office, he cannot directly assert privilege to keep witnesses quiet or documents out of the hands of Congress.

As the current president, Joe Biden does have a say in the matter — but his administration said on Oct. 8 that they would not block the handover of documents sought by the House committee.

The documents filed by Trump’s lawyers on Monday cited Biden’s refusal to accept Trump’s assertion of executive privilege, saying the investigation “amounts to nothing less than a vexatious, illegal fishing expedition openly endorsed by Biden and designed to unconstitutionally investigate President Trump and his administration.” 

The National Archives are set to turn over the requested documents to the committee by November. 

Lawmakers have already sent subpoenas to multiple Trump aides, including close adviser Steve Bannon, who last week defied a subpoena to produce documents to before the committee. Rep. Thompson said the panel will vote Tuesday to recommend charges against Bannon.

If approved by the Democratic-majority committee, the recommendation of criminal charges would go to the full House. Approval there would send them to the Justice Department, which has final say on prosecution.

When asked Monday what Biden thought of the potential charges, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in part: “The President continues to believe that January 6 was one of the darkest days in our democracy. He also continues to believe that the Department of Justice has the purview and the independence to make decisions about prosecutions.”

According to Monday's filing, the House committee has submitted over 50 requests for documents spanning at least 30 individuals, including all of Trump's public and private communications on the day of the insurrection.

The lawsuit was filed by Jesse Binnall, an attorney based in Alexandria, Virginia, who represented Trump in an unsuccessful lawsuit in 2020 seeking to overturn Biden’s victory in Nevada. Trump and his allies have continued to make unfounded, baseless claims about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.

There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, a statement backed up by officials of both parties, including Trump's own attorney general William Barr, and courts nationwide who rejected cases brought by the former president and his allies.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.