White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday ripped former President Trump‘s lawsuit to block the release of documents to the commission investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Ms. Psaki blasted the former president’s claim of executive privilege, saying it shouldn’t apply in this case because Mr. Trump‘s actions were “a clear and apparent effort to subvert the constitution itself.”
“Our view and I think the view of the vast majority of Americans, is that former President Trump abused the office of the presidency and attempted to subvert the peaceful transfer of power, something that had happened between Democratic and Republican presidencies for decades and decades throughout history,” Ms. Psaki told reporters.
She said, “The former president’s actions represented a unique and existential threat to our democracy that we don’t feel can be swept under the rug.”
Mr. Trump filed a lawsuit Monday against the select congressional committee to block it from obtaining his administration’s documents from the National Archives. His attorneys say the committee doesn’t have a legitimate legislative purpose, and the documents are protected under executive privilege.
He called the commission’s document request an “illegal fishing expedition.” The committee has vowed to fight Mr. Trump‘s lawsuit in what’s expected to be a long legal battle.
President Biden this month declined to exert executive privilege on the first set of Trump documents requested by the committee. In a letter to the National Archives, White House Counsel Dana Remus said Mr. Biden has determined that “assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States and therefore is not justified as to any of the documents.”
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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