A spokesperson for former President Donald Trump has sued the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, in an effort to block the release of his bank records.
In his complaint filed Christmas Eve, Taylor Budowich revealed that he had already turned over more than 1,700 pages of documents personally in response to a subpoena in November, and provided close to four hours of sworn testimony.
Mr. Budowich says JPMorgan alerted him to a separate subpoena against the bank for his financial records, even after he had complied with the committee’s probe.
He said the committee’s going after his bank records is out of bounds, and is challenging the latest subpoena in court.
“I will not allow some politicians to intimidate me for my support of President Donald J. Trump,” Mr. Budowich said in a statement. “Government should not be a weapon that’s freely used against political opponents and private citizens — but it seems like this Democrat-led Congress is intent on codifying that precedent.”
The committee did not respond to The Washington Times’ request for comment.
Mr. Budowich did not become Mr. Trump’s communications director until July of this year, six months after the attack on the Capitol.
But the committee issued a subpoena compelling Mr. Budowich to produce documents and testify before the committee about his work as a consultant at a firm that advertised the rally at the Ellipse on Jan. 6.
Mr. Budowich says he fully cooperated with the probe, turning over a trove of documents to the panel and sitting for a more than four-hour deposition.
He said he provided to the committee “documents sufficient to identify all account transactions” from mid-December of last year through January of this year as part of the documents he turned over previously. He said he also answered questions about the transactions as part of his testimony.
But Mr. Budowich said in his complaint that the committee’s subpoena of his bank records goes too far.
“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 complaint reads.
“The Select Committee acts absent any valid legislative power and threatens to violate longstanding principles of separation of powers by performing a law enforcement function absent authority to do so,” the complaint continues.
He further alleges that the committee engaged in “deceptive tactics” by requesting the records from his bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co., who he said provided him with an abbreviated window to respond before turning his records over to the committee.
He said he received a letter from JPMorgan on Dec. 23 after returning to California from his in-person deposition before the committee on Dec. 22 to find a letter from JPMorgan alerting him to the subpoena.
In the letter, JPMorgan said Mr. Budowich had until the end of the day on Dec. 24, Christmas Eve, to respond in court in order to block the release of the records.
Few details were provided by the bank, he said.
“To add to the absurdity, neither the committee nor JPMorgan Chase will provide me with a copy of the actual contents of the subpoena,” Mr. Budowich said. “By circumventing my Constitutionally-protected rights, this Committee is only proving one thing: the Constitution only applies if your political party is in charge.”
JPMorgan has retained Loretta Lynch, who served as attorney general under the Obama administration, according to Fox News.
JPMorgan declined to comment Monday when contacted by the Times.
Mr. Budowich’s case adds to a growing list of lawsuits filed by former advisers, rally organizers and others who say the committee has overstepped its bounds.
The Democrat-led committee has subpoenaed phone records from more than 100 individuals since beginning its probe in July.
Several former Trump advisers, including former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, election lawyer Cleta Mitchell and conservative public interest lawyer John Eastman, have received letters from their wireless providers alerting them that the committee demanded records.
Mr. Meadows, whom the House voted to hold in contempt of Congress for twice failing to appear for depositions, said in a complaint filed earlier this month that he was “blindsided” by the letter he received from Verizon alerting him to the committee’s subpoena of his call records.
Mr. Meadows, who was a Republican congressman from North Carolina before joining the Trump administration, bucked initial demands to cooperate with the probe.
He cited the former president’s claim of executive privilege before briefly cooperating with the committee.
Others outside of Trump’s inner circle, including far-right media personality Alex Jones, rally organizers and a freelance photojournalist, are fighting phone record subpoenas issued by the committee.
Most of the plaintiffs argue that the subpoenas point to the committee’s political motive to silence conservatives rather than get the truth of what happened on Jan. 6.
“This information has no bearing on any contemplated constitutional legislation,” Mr. Budowich said in his complaint. “It is relevant only to serve the Select Committee’s stated purpose of engaging in ad-hoc law enforcement and its unstated purpose of antagonizing political adversaries.”
• Joseph Clark can be reached at jclark@washingtontimes.com.
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