President Donald Trump announced this week he has filed a federal lawsuit in defense of the U.S. Constitution and the Office of the President, outlining three fundamental legal arguments to fight back against the partisan Jan. 6 committee’s continued witch-hunt of political opponents.
Ultimately, the lawsuit seeks to block the panel from gaining access to the Trump administration’s records pertaining to the patriotic, pro-Trump rally and protest which took place at the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. These records are held in the National Archives.
“The January 6th Committee is a partisan sham to distract Americans from the Democrats’ policies that are killing and robbing Americans,” the statement says, issued by President Trump’s Save America PAC.
To fight back against this investigation, which appears to be another chapter in a long series of Democrat-driven political witch-hunts, Trump’s legal team has laid out three arguments.
First, Trump’s attorneys are arguing that there is no legitimate legislative purpose to this committee. The second argument is perhaps where the crux of their case rests: Former presidents, according to Trump’s legal team and historical and legal precedence, have inherent, constitutional rights of privilege.
According to the statement, “An incumbent administration does not have the constitutional authority to unilaterally waive the executive privilege of a previous administration—especially one so recent. If it did, then executive privilege doesn’t exist, including for Joe Biden.”
Lastly, President Trump’s team is arguing that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) hasn’t had enough time to properly compile and list the documents the committee is requesting. Any protected documents that may be too sensitive for release to the public, they say, should be reviewed by either President Trump or Joe Biden prior to their release.
Previously, President Trump blasted the Jan. 6 “Unselect Committee” which he says is “composed of Radical Left Democrats and a few horrible RINO Republicans…[who are] looking to hold people in criminal contempt for the things relative to the Protest, when in fact they should hold themselves in criminal contempt for cheating in the Election…”
The Democrats in Washington have relentlessly pursued legal action against President Donald Trump regarding the Jan. 6 protest at the U.S. Capitol, an event which is often referred to by the mainstream media as the “insurrection.” Republican lawmakers like Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., have also fought back agains the narrative as well as the partisan Department of Justice (DOJ) over the past year, decrying the injustice of allegedly mistreating Jan. 6 political prisoners and holding them in a D.C. corrections facility.
Additionally, the committee has recently issued its own statement after Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist and close ally, declined to appear before them after issuing a subpoena, bucking hard against any plans President Trump is taking to use executive privilege in his defense: “Mr. Bannon has declined to cooperate with the Select Committee and is instead hiding behind the former President’s insufficient, blanket, and vague statements regarding privileges he has purported to invoke. We reject his position entirely,” stated the Chair of the Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.
“The Committee is motivated by one thing,” Trump’s official statement concludes. “Delivering political wins for the Democrats. That’s why they’ve set a rapid timetable that steamrolls the Constitution, legal precedent, and established process. The Committee isn’t seeking the truth, it’s seeking Communist-style political persecution of President Trump and the American First patriots who served their country honorably.”