Washington — President Trump has formally asserted executive privilege over records sought by Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio in her continuing legal challenge to his attempt to temporarily close the Kennedy Center for renovations.
White House Deputy Counsel Joshua Hoyt notified a federal judge Wednesday that Mr. Trump was invoking the presidential communications privilege, a category of executive privilege. Hoyt said the assertion applies to information, documents and communications involving Mr. Trump, his advisers and Kennedy Center employees concerning the president’s responsibilities and “the effective functioning” of the performing arts institution.
Hoyt maintained that Mr. Trump needs to “familiarize himself” with the center’s management, operations, fundraising and programming because the president appoints members of its board and the related Advisory Committee on the Arts.
“I believe that, without the protection of the presidential communications privilege over the communications described above, presidential advisors and their staff members would be chilled from gathering relevant information, exploring alternatives, and providing fully informed recommendations regarding the performance of the President’s duties,” the White House lawyer wrote in a declaration.
In a separate court filing, Justice Department attorneys accused Beatty of pursuing a “fishing expedition” that, they said, could raise separation-of-powers issues.
“Even though the President’s statutory duties and the Chairman’s trust duties overlap, what matters for the purpose of executive privilege is that Plaintiff seeks information, documents, and communications concerning the President’s actions in his official capacity,” the lawyers wrote.
Executive privilege is not unlimited. Courts may set it aside when a party makes a sufficient showing that the requested information is necessary.
The Kennedy Center’s board of trustees, which includes Trump administration officials and presidential allies, elected Mr. Trump as its chairman last year. He became the first sitting president to hold that position. His effort to use executive privilege to withhold Kennedy Center records presents new and unresolved questions about whether the protection covers actions he took as chairman of the performing arts institution, which Congress created in 1958 and which relies on federal funding, ticket sales and private donations.
The president’s privilege claim covers records concerning his plan to close the Kennedy Center for two years for renovations, the institution’s finances, an effort to place Mr. Trump’s name on the building’s facade and the possibility of demolishing the center.
Questions about a potential demolition intensified after Mr. Trump said last month that the Kennedy Center would close and “end up being ripped down” unless he and his administration received credit for fundraising and leading repairs at the institution.
Mr. Trump was also photographed aboard Air Force One examining a placard that appeared to read “Kennedy Center Demolished.”
The dispute over executive privilege is unfolding in a lawsuit Beatty filed in December. The case challenges the board’s decision to rename the center the Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts and to close it for two years of renovations. Beatty serves as an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees.
In May, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper halted the planned closure and directed that Mr. Trump’s name be removed from the building’s facade. Workers removed the president’s name from the exterior in June, although a tarp now covers the front portico and obscures much of the building’s name.
Cooper has also authorized Beatty to obtain information from the Kennedy Center about the decision to close its main building and any possible demolition. He also permitted her to conduct depositions as part of the discovery process.
Beatty’s attorneys, however, said the Justice Department was attempting to stop her from asking about instructions or other input Kennedy Center employees received from Mr. Trump as board chairman. They also said the department had refused to produce documents concerning those communications.
The lawyers accused the department of “improperly asserting a blanket privilege in an unprecedented fashion” and asked Cooper to order the Kennedy Center to provide the records Beatty is seeking.
In a response to Beatty’s requests, Justice Department attorneys argued late last month that “to the extent the discovery requests seek communications involving the President or White House personnel, they are inappropriate because they may have the effect of seeking information protected by the presidential communications privilege.”
During a deposition last week, Matthew Floca, the Kennedy Center’s executive director and chief operating officer, was repeatedly told by a Justice Department lawyer not to answer certain questions from one of Beatty’s attorneys because of the government’s protective assertion of executive privilege.
