WASHINGTON – The Trump administration is withholding records that could reveal the extent of President Donald Trump’s involvement in managing the Kennedy Center, lawyers for a Democratic lawmaker said in a lawsuit challenging his plan to shut the performing arts institution for renovations.
According to a list of records held by the Kennedy Center, Trump maintained “near-constant contact” with its leadership either personally or through intermediaries, attorneys for the plaintiffs said in a court filing Sunday.
Lawyers representing Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, are asking the court to compel the administration to release documents, emails and text messages withheld under claims of presidential communications privilege.
“These communications directly bear on the issues before the Court, and the claim of privilege cannot stand,” Beatty’s attorneys wrote.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper had not immediately ruled on the request to force disclosure.
The withheld-records list includes 19 text messages exchanged between Kennedy Center executive director and CEO Matt Floca and Trump executive assistant Natalie Harp about center business. Eleven of those messages were sent Sept. 15, the same day the board voted for the third time to close the facility, Beatty’s lawyers said.
The records also include roughly 180 texts between Floca and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, whom Beatty’s attorneys describe as Trump’s “go-between.” The plaintiffs’ lawyers believe the administration may be engaging in impermissible “gamesmanship.”
“Without access to these materials, (Beatty) will lack a complete picture of Defendants’ actions,” they wrote.
The White House did not immediately respond to the filing.
Cooper, who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, ruled in May that the Kennedy Center had unlawfully added Trump’s name to the building. He ordered the name removed.
Trump was named Kennedy Center chairman last year by board members aligned with him. He has argued that the building is unsafe and may need to be “ripped down.” The board voted to close the center after Cooper blocked the institution from restoring Trump’s name to the building.
Floca ordered a temporary shutdown of the center’s main building on Sept. 16. The following day, Cooper directed the Kennedy Center to give 30 days’ notice before undertaking any major physical alterations to the facility.
