On Monday, the Former Guy (TFG) filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against “the Democratic-led House select committee that’s investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, as well as the National Archives, to try to stop documents related to the riot from being turned over to the panel.”
“The Committee’s request amounts to nothing less than a vexatious, illegal fishing expedition openly endorsed by [President] Biden and designed to unconstitutionally investigate President Trump and his administration. Our laws do not permit such an impulsive, egregious action against a former President and his close advisors,” the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., says.
TFG has urged those subpoenaed by the committee not to comply citing ‘executive privilege.’ Unbeknownst and rarely understood by the average MAGAt, executive privilege applies only to the current, sitting president; not one who lost the election and is out of office.
White House spokesperson Michael Gwin issued a statement saying that TFG’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.”
Committee Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said in a statement late Monday that Trump’s lawsuit “is nothing more than an attempt to delay and obstruct our probe.”
They added: “Precedent and law are on our side. Executive privilege is not absolute and President Biden has so far declined to invoke that privilege. Additionally, there’s a long history of the White House accommodating congressional investigative requests when the public interest outweighs other concerns.”
