Former U.S. President Donald Trump filed a federal lawsuit in the state of Florida late Friday to not appear to testify at a deposition Monday before the U.S. House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
Trump is challenging a subpoena issued by the committee to hand over documents and testify in a closed-door deposition about events that occurred Jan. 6, 2021, in which five people were killed.
"While other Presidents and former Presidents have voluntarily agreed to testify or turn over documents in response to a congressional subpoena, no President or former President has ever been compelled to do so," according to the 41-page lawsuit.
Trump is suing to block the subpoena, which his attorneys said intrudes on executive privilege still guaranteed to him in the Constitution even though he left office nearly two years ago.
"After the J6 Committee has undertaken the unprecedented act of demanding President Trump appear for a deposition on Monday, November 14th, he engaged with the Committee in a good faith effort to resolve these concerns consistent with Executive Branch prerogatives and separation of powers," Trump's attorney David Warrington said in a statement. "But this partisan Committee insists on pursuing a political path, leaving President Trump with no choice but to involve the third branch, the judicial branch, in this dispute between the executive and legislative branches."
Among the defendants listed in the lawsuit are several of Trump's well-known congressional nemeses including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff, Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney.
"President Trump, as a former President of the United States, has absolute immunity from being compelled to testify before Congress," said the suit. "The Subpoena issued to President Trump is invalid, unlawful, and unenforceable as an unwarranted intrusion into the Executive Branch."
A spokesperson for the committee declined to comment.
