A group of high-powered lawyers who worked for Republican presidents have publicly undercut Donald Trump’s claim that he’s entitled to executive privilege.
Trump has brought the executive privilege argument to the Supreme Court, which he hopes will block the House’s January 6th committee from obtaining records from his administration related to the Capitol riot.
But in an amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court on Wednesday, legal heavyweights who worked for Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush argued that “Trump’s arguments are at odds with our nation’s rich history of congressional investigations.”
The lawyers cite numerous instances – stretching back to the late 1700s – demonstrating that presidents and ex-presidents have consistently cooperated with inquiries initiated by Congress.
From the brief:
In sum, as Theodore Roosevelt explained after his presidency, a former president is “like any other citizen” and has a “plain duty to try to help [a congressional] committee or respond to its invitation, just as anyone else would respond.
“It is difficult to imagine a more compelling interest than the House’s interest in determining what legislation might be necessary to respond to the most significant attack on the Capitol in 200 years and the effort to undermine our basic form of government that that attack represented,” the lawyers wrote.
The Hill gives context on the lawyers who filed the brief:
Among the brief’s authors are Donald Ayer, who served in top Department of Justice (DOJ) roles under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush; Peter Keisler, a high-ranking DOJ official under President George W. Bush and an associate White House counsel under Reagan; and Carter Phillips, an assistant to the solicitor general under Reagan and who regularly advocates before the Supreme Court.
Trump’s lawyers filed their own supplemental brief to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, arguing that members of the House committee probing the Capitol riot have publicly teased the possibility of issuing criminal referrals against Trump and his associates. Trump’s legal team says this exceeds Congress’s authority and proves that the committee has no valid legislative purpose.
