Trump officially claims executive privilege in legal battle over Kennedy Center closure

Washington- President Trump has formally invoked executive privilege to protect certain documents from Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio as part of his ongoing legal challenge to the president’s efforts to temporarily close the Kennedy Center for renovations.

Deputy White House counsel Joshua Hoyt briefed a federal judge on Wednesday about Mr. Trump’s formal assertion of presidential communications privilege, a form of executive privilege. Hoyt said they were information, documents or communications between Mr. Trump, his advisers and Kennedy Center employees regarding the president’s duties and “the effective operation” of the performing arts institution.

Hoyt argued that because the president appoints members of the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees and a related arts advisory committee, he must “familiarize himself” with the institution’s management, operations, fundraising efforts and planned activities.

“I believe that, without the protection of presidential communications privilege described above, presidential advisers and members of their staff would not be able to gather relevant information, explore alternatives, and provide fully informed recommendations regarding the President’s performance of his duties,” the White House counsel wrote in a statement.

In a separate filing, Justice Department lawyers accused Beatty of leading a “fishing expedition” that raises separation of powers concerns.

“Even though the statutory duties of the President and the fiduciary duties of the President overlap, what matters for purposes of executive privilege is that the plaintiff seeks information, documents, and communications regarding the actions of the President in his official capacity,” they argued.

Executive privilege is not absolute and can be overcome by an adequate showing of need for the information in question.

The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, made up of Trump administration officials and the president’s allies, elected Mr. Trump as president last year, making him the first sitting president to hold the position. His effort to invoke executive privilege to protect documents relating to the Kennedy Center raises new and untested questions about whether the protection extends to the president’s actions as chairman of the performing arts institution, created by Congress in 1958 and funded by a mix of federal dollars, ticket revenue and private donations.

The president asserted executive privilege over a number of documents relating to his try to close the Kennedy Center for two years to allow for renovations, its financial situation, efforts to add Mr. Trump’s name to the building’s facade and the possibility of the Kennedy Center being demolished.

Concerns about the building’s destruction emerged after Mr. Trump said last month that the Kennedy Center would close and “eventually be torn down” if he and his administration did not gain recognition for raising money and leading repairs of the institution.

Mr. Trump was also photographed on Air Force One looking at a sign that appeared to say “Kennedy Center demolished.”

The simmering struggle around the privilege of leaders is part of a lawsuit filed by Beatty in December, defying the board move to change the name of the center at the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts and close the institution for two years for renovations. Beatty is an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees.

In May, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper blocked the center from closing and ordered Mr. Trump’s name removed from the building’s facade. Construction teams withdrew the president’s name from the outside in June, but the building’s front portico has since been covered with a tarp, hiding most of its name.

Cooper also allowed Beatty to gather information from the Kennedy Center about the decision to close the main building and any potential demolition, and to take depositions, a process known as discovery.

But Beatty’s lawyers said the Justice Department sought to block his investigations into any input and instructions Kennedy Center staff received from Mr. Trump in his capacity as board chairman and refused to turn over any documents related to those communications.

They accused the Justice Department of “inappropriately asserting general privilege in an unprecedented manner” and asked Cooper to order the Kennedy Center to turn over the material sought by Beatty.

In response to Beatty’s requests, Justice Department lawyers said late last month that “to the extent discovery requests seek communications involving the President or White House staff, they are inappropriate because they may have the effect of seeking information protected by the presidential communications privilege.”

In a deposition with Matthew Floca, executive director and chief operating officer of the Kennedy Center, last week, a Justice Department lawyer repeatedly asked Floca not to answer certain questions from one of Beatty’s lawyers based on a protective assertion of executive privilege.