A White House lawyer said President Donald Trump has officially invoked executive privilege in the court fight involving his management of the John F.Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.In a court filing late Wednesday, Joshua Hoyt, a deputy assistant and deputy counsel to the president, said that at “the direction of the President,” he was “formally invoking the presidential communications privilege with respect to information, documents, and communications requested” by the plaintiff in the case, Rep.
Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio.Beatty, an ex officio board member of the center, has been challenging Trump’s efforts to add his name to the front of the building and his directive that the center be shuttered for two years while it’s renovated.She’s been seeking more information about Trump’s role in both matters, since he named himself to the board last year and was voted chairman by his handpicked board members.In February, Trump directed the center to be closed for renovations in a social media post and has since said those renovations won’t proceed if he doesn’t get “recognition” for his efforts.Beatty contends the board’s subsequent votes to close the center were a fait accompli, given Trump’s February directive.In the administration’s court filing Wednesday, Hoyt said the executive privilege invocation means Beatty is not entitled to any more details about the president’s management of the nonprofit board.He said in a declaration that privilege specifically covers “information, documents, and communications shared between the President, his advisors (government and non-government), and Kennedy Center staff, pertaining to the management and operation” of the center.
It also extends to communications “to or from his advisors and/or Kennedy Center staff.”In a separate filing Wednesday, the Justice Department said Beatty was engaged in an improper “fishing expedition,” arguing her “pursuit of irrelevant evidence does not ju...