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| Photo Credit: AP. |
Former President Donald Trump Friday sued the January 6 committee in relation to a subpoena compelling him to testify before it in order to preserve his constitutional right.
In a 41-page
lawsuit the former president sued the January 6 panel, House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi and nine members of the panel, alleging the subpoena violated his rights
and executive privileges as provided for in the constitution which guarantees
separation of powers.
The committee
has been investigating the January 6, 2021 violent siege at the U.S. Capitol by
a group of Trump supporters which the committee blames the former president for
instigating.
“President
Trump has been put in the untenable position of choosing between preserving his
rights and the constitutional prerogatives of the Executive Branch, or risking
enforcement of the Subpoena issued to him,” the lawsuit read, demanding the
judge to block the subpoena, according to The Washington Times.
Earlier Trump’s
attorney David A. Warrington of Dhillon Law Group released a statement noting
that “Long-held precedent and practice maintain that separation of powers
prohibits Congress from compelling a president to testify before it.”
Warrington said
the January 6 committee had “undertaken the unprecedented act of demanding
President Trump appear for a deposition on Monday, November 14th,” for which the
former president “engaged with the Committee in a good faith effort to resolve
this concerns consistent with Executive Branch prerogatives and separation of
powers, but this partisan committee insists on pursuing a political path.”
Warrington
said Mr. Trump is left with no choice “but to involve the third branch, the
judiciary branch, in this dispute between the executive and legislative
branches.”
In October The
House Select Committee investigating the January 6 violent siege at the U.S.
Capitol unanimously voted to issue a subpoena to former President Donald Trump
to testify before the panel.
In a letter
submitted to the committee on following the subpoena Mr. Trump dismissed the
committee as a “partisan charade” and described the work of the committee as a
politically motivated “witch hunt.”
More than 1,000 witnesses including many of Trump’s top White House aides and inner circle were interviewed during the panel’s sitting, where they sought to establish efforts by the former president to overturn his 2020 election loss as well as his inaction just as his supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021.