Former US President Donald Trump’s spokesperson Taylor Budowich on Friday sued the House Select Committee that is investigating the January 6 riots that led to the attack on the US Capitol. Budowich’s lawsuit is aimed at preventing the committee from obtaining his own financial records from JP Morgan, which has also been named in the lawsuit.
Last month, the committee had subpoenaed Budowich and some other associates of Trump who were involved in planning the ‘Stop the Steal’ rallies across the country, including the one at Washington, DC, before the attack on the US Capitol. Budowich had complied, and according to his latest lawsuit, had provided “more than 1,700 pages of documents…and roughly four hours of testimony.”
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This appears to be a point of contention as his present lawsuit against the committee states that the documents Budowich had provided “were sufficient to identify all account transactions for the time period December 19, 2020 to January 31, 2021 in connection with the Ellipse rally [in Washington, DC].” The lawsuit further added, “The Select Committee wrongly seeks to compel Mr. Budowich’s financial institution to provide private banking information to the Select Committee that it lacks the lawful authority to seek and to obtain.”
The committee’s subpoena to Budowich stated that he had “reportedly solicited a 501c(4) organization [a civic organisation] to conduct a social media and radio advertising campaign encouraging attendance at the January 6th Ellipse rally and advancing unsupported claims about the result of the election.” Based on information on its file, the committee also maintains that Budowich directed approximately $200,000 to the aforementioned civic organisation that was “not disclosed to the organization to pay for the advertising campaign.”
Budowich’s lawsuit is the latest pushback by Trump and his associates against the committee’s investigation into the riots, and comes on the back of Trump’s request to the Supreme Court on Thursday to block the release of documents to the House Select Committee.
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Speaking on Trump’s behalf, attorney Jesse R. Binnall told the apex court on Thursday, “The limited interest the committee may have in immediately obtaining the requested records pales in comparison to President Trump’s interest in securing judicial review before he suffers irreparable harm. [Former] President Trump will suffer irreparable harm through the effective denial of a constitutional and statutory right to be fully heard on a serious disagreement between the former and incumbent President.”