Trump sues to block subpoena from riot committee

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump filed suit against the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, seeking to block the panel’s subpoena that required him to testify and hand over documents related to the effort to overturn the 2020 election.

The 41-page lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in Florida, came before Trump was scheduled to appear before the panel for a deposition Monday. The panel had been in discussions with Trump’s lawyers and gave them additional time to begin producing documents.

The suit seeks to declare the subpoena invalid for a variety of reasons, including that it is overly broad and unnecessary. Trump’s lawyers say the subpoena lacks a legislative purpose and infringes upon executive privilege and his First Amendment rights.

“The broad scope of the subpoena’s request for documents and testimony threatens to force President Trump to reveal the inner workings of his presidential campaign, including his political beliefs, strategy and fundraising,” wrote a lawyer for Trump, Matthew Seth Sarelson. “The committee’s quasicriminal inquest into matters beyond violence during the Capitol riot infringe upon his First Amendment rights to hold whatever political views he would like.”

A spokesperson for the committee declined to comment.

The committee is set to dissolve at the end of this Congress in January. Trump has made it a tactic over the years to bog down various investigations into his activities in litigation. With Republicans on a path to take control of the House, it is all but certain they will not continue the inquiry. But the suit could test the constitutionally important question of whether Congress can compel testimony from a former president.

The committee directed Trump to produce an extensive list of documents and communications — including phone calls, texts, encrypted messages and email — related to nearly every aspect of his effort to invalidate the 2020 election from Nov. 3, 2020, to Jan. 6, 2021.

It asked for material on the former president’s bid to create false slates of pro-Trump electors in states he lost; his connections to the militia groups that participated in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol; any attempts to delay or disrupt the electoral count by Congress on that day; and his interactions with members of Congress.

The committee has at times acted aggressively to enforce its subpoenas. The House has voted four times to hold in contempt of Congress allies of Trump who refused to testify or supply documents.