Former US President Donald Trump has taken legal action to prevent disclosure of White House documents related to his supporters’ assault on Capitol Hill, according to a court filing Monday.
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The billionaire has protested the executive branch’s right to keep certain information secret to prevent former aides from providing evidence to Congress, further escalation of the billionaire’s campaign to block investigators looking into the deadly attack on January 6.
The actions brought by Donald Trump are expected to lead to a confrontation in the courts that may serve as a good test for the constitutional authority of Congress to review the actions of the executive branch of power.
Thousands of supporters of the Republican president stormed the US Parliament on January 6, in an attempt to derail Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.
Earlier in the day, Donald Trump addressed a crowd a few hundred meters away, arguing – to no avail – that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from him.
The complaint notes that “the committee’s request is nothing more than a malicious and illegal attempt to search for information, publicly supported by Biden and designed to unconstitutionally investigate President Trump and his administration.”
Parliamentary investigators are seeking testimony from officials who can discuss what the president knew about the assault before it unfolded, and what he did when the incident occurred.
Since the end of August, the National Archives has sent several official documents requested by investigators to the Trump and President Biden teams, giving them 30 days to review them.
The Supreme Court, in its jurisprudence, has ruled the right of chiefs to keep certain documents and interviews confidential in order to ensure more frank discussions with their advisors.
Donald Trump is not the first US president to use this privilege.
However, no court has said that the latter applies to previous presidents. At the moment, incumbent President Joe Biden has the final say on the matter, and he has already claimed that he will allow the release of the first batch of documents, rejecting the objections of his predecessor.
Donald Trump’s complaint asks a federal judge to declare inadmissible any request from the committee and to prevent the National Archives from sending any documents.
The former president has already asked his key aides, from his latest chief of staff Mark Meadows to his political strategy adviser Steve Bannon, to disregard subpoenas to appear before the Parliamentary Inquiry.