Attorneys representing former President Donald Trump filed a motion Tuesday which claimed that the FBI had cleared him of any misconduct related to the January 6 insurrection.
Trump’s lawyers stated that this claim was based on a single Reuters article that their legal team had come across.
The motion, filed with the U.S. District Court, argued that the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack should not be allowed to review any White House records from that day.
Furthermore, the motion falsely stated that two separate government investigations had already examined the former president and concluded that he was not at fault for the insurrection.
“Investigations by the FBI and the Senate Committee on Government Affairs and Homeland Security rebuff their contentions of wrongdoing by Trump Administration officials,” the motion said in regards to the House Select Committee on January 6.
When Judge Tanya Chutkan asked for clarification about this claim, the former president’s lawyers reiterated that their information was from “just a published article from Reuters … quoting the FBI.”
“You cite an article,” Chutkan responded to the lawyers. “I mean, that’s your only support for that statement?”
Trump’s lawyers shot back that “the bigger point … was that there’s no limiting principle to these questions.”
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The Reuters article in question was published in August based on statements from a number of law enforcement officers that had spoken with the outlet.
The article stated that the FBI had only found “scant evidence” that the January 6 attack was the result of an organized plot. However, it never says that the FBI or any other agency had vindicated Trump of wrongdoing.
Additionally, the article had noted that while the Senate Homeland Security Committee “never faulted anyone at the White House,” that investigation was based on the failures of the Capitol security, and did not look into the Trump administration.
This marks the latest in a series of attempts by Trump lawyers to block the House Select Committee on January 6 from receiving White House documents from that day.
The former president has notably asserted executive privilege in keeping documents hidden, though the grounds for doing so have repeatedly been called into question.
During a hearing Thursday also led by Chutkan, she stated that “there is only one executive.”
“The person best able to determine whether there’s an executive privilege is the current executive,” Chutkan added.
Many people have blamed Trump for inciting the riot that occurred on January 6. After he urged his supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol, the group stormed the building and broke into the Senate chambers.
This forced Congress to evacuate the Capitol, which was attempting to certify the electoral win of President Joe Biden.
In the aftermath of the attack, Trump was impeached for a second time on January 13 for incitement of insurrection. The Senate acquitted him one month later, after he had already left office.
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s press office for comment.
