“This Court should refuse to allow Defendants’ naked political ploy and preserve the institution of the presidency,” Trump’s attorney said.
Former President Donald Trump is pleading with a federal judge in Washington to slow down the Jan. 6 committee’s effort to obtain his White House records, instead asking her to order a document-by-document review that could take months.
In a 33-page filing, Trump’s attorney is asking Judge Tanya Chutkan to reject the House’s effort to obtain documents from the former president’s White House that he says should be shielded by executive privilege. President Joe Biden has declined to assert privilege on Trump’s records, leaving Trump’s lawsuit as the only obstacle to Congress obtaining his records.
Anything less, says lawyer Jesse Binnall, would erode the presidency itself by granting unfettered access for Congress into the records of a former president.
“This Court should refuse to allow Defendants’ naked political ploy and preserve the institution of the presidency,” Binnall writes.
In making his argument, Binnall falsely claimed that “both the FBI and Senate have confirmed that there was no coordinated effort, including at the White House, to overturn the election on January 6.”
Reuters reported in August that the FBI had so far found “scant” evidence that there was a broader conspiracy beyond small pockets of militia groups, and Binnall cited that report, sourced to “four current and former law enforcement officials” as evidence of his claim. But the FBI has not affirmed this conclusion, and the Jan. 6 committee explicitly rejected this contention.
But the FBI has stated no such official conclusion, and lawmakers have insisted this is not the case.
“We’ve received answers and briefings from the relevant entities, and it’s been made clear to us that reports of such a conclusion are baseless,” Jan. 6 Committee leaders, Reps. Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney said in a statement last month.
Binnall also cited a Senate committee’s report on security failures as proof the Senate agreed there was no conspiracy. But, the Senate committee that examined the security breakdown in the Capitol specifically focused its review on law enforcement agencies like the Capitol Police and National Guard, declining to expand its purview into Trump’s activities. Members emphasized they had left that part of the investigation to others.
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NEW: Donald Trump has responded to the Jan. 6 committee in court, urging a court to slow down investigators’ effort to obtain his White House records. He wants a document-by-document review that could take months.https://t.co/YGtwoYMQsQ
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) November 2, 2021
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