Trump invokes executive privilege over Kennedy Center records in Beatty lawsuit

Left · 2White House deputy counsel Joshua Hoyt informed a federal judge on Wednesday that President Trump was formally invoking the presidential communications privilege, a form of executive privilege, over certain Kennedy Center records. 1 2 Left · 2The records are sought by Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex officio member of the center's board, in a lawsuit she filed in December challenging the board's move to rename the center for Trump and close it for two years for renovations. 1 2 Left · 2The assertion covers records on the attempt to close the center, its finances, the effort to put Trump's name on the building and the possibility of demolition. 1 2

Left · 2Hoyt argued that because the president appoints the board's members and those of the Advisory Committee on the Arts, he must "familiarize himself" with the center's management, operations and fundraising, and that without the privilege advisers and staff would be "chilled" from giving fully informed recommendations. 1 2 Left · 1Raw Story, citing the declaration, reports that Trump also seeks to extend the privilege to advisers outside the government and to conversations that did not include him, and that it blocks answers in depositions of Kennedy Center executive director Matthew Floca and another witness, including communications involving Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that "relayed presidential decision-making." 2 Left · 1CBS News reports that during Floca's deposition last week, a Justice Department lawyer repeatedly instructed him not to answer certain questions from Beatty's lawyer, citing a protective assertion of executive privilege. 1

Left · 2In a separate filing, Justice Department lawyers accused Beatty of a "fishing expedition" that raises separation-of-powers concerns, saying she seeks information about the president's actions in his official capacity. 1 2 Left · 1Beatty's lawyers say the Justice Department is "improperly asserting a blanket privilege in an unprecedented fashion" and have asked Judge Christopher Cooper to order the center to turn over the material. 1 Left · 1Trump is the first sitting president to chair the board, which elected him last year; CBS says the move raises new and untested questions about whether the privilege covers his actions as chairman, and notes that executive privilege is not absolute and can be overcome by a showing of need. 1

Left · 1In May, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper blocked the closure and ordered Trump's name removed from the facade; the name was stripped in June, and he has allowed Beatty to conduct discovery on the closure and any demolition. 1 Left · 1Raw Story links the filing to a separate Axios report that the White House is examining a claim, raised by former U.S. Attorney Alina Habba, that former Kennedy Center president Ric Grenell failed to deposit a donation from her husband, Turhan Mildon; Grenell called the claim "Absurd." 2 Left · 1An official told Axios that staff searched late last year for a contribution they thought was $6 million but could not find it, while the center's records showed Mildon owed only a $270,000 pledge, which he paid Tuesday. 2