Former US President Donald Trump on Monday filed a lawsuit seeking to block White House records from his tenure there being obtained by the congressional committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot, NBC News reports.
The lawsuit accuses the select committee and its chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, of harassing Trump and senior members of his administration with “an illegal, unfounded, and overbroad records request to the Archivist of the United States.”
It also accuses President Joe Biden of “a political ploy” by refusing to assert executive privilege over the records to keep them from going to the committee.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., according to NBC.
The select committee investigating the January 6 riot at the US Capitol two weeks ago subpoenaed close aides and allies of Trump.
The four subpoenas went to former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, former adviser Steve Bannon and Kash Patel, a former chief of staff to then-acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller who had also served as an aide to Republican Rep. Devin Nunes.
The committee is slated to vote on Tuesday to hold Bannon in contempt of Congress for not complying with the subpoena.
In May, the US House of Representatives passed a bill to form a commission to probe the January 6 attack on the Capitol. The bill was approved in a 252-175 vote, with 35 Republicans joining all Democrats in support.
Two days later, however, Senate Republicans blocked the legislation. Senators voted 54-35 on the House-passed bill, falling short of the 10 GOP votes needed to get it over an initial hurdle.
Without any pathway forward in the Senate, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced she would use her power to pursue a select committee in the House that will be controlled by Democrats.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy then protested Pelosi's refusal to seat two of the Republicans he named to the panel — Reps. Jim Banks and Jim Jordan.
The House of Representatives then voted 218-197 against McCarthy’s effort to seat his preferred members for the select committee.