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Donald Trump in the US Capitol (2016, with wife Melania and then Speaker of the House Paul Ryan)
Photo: JOSHUA ROBERTS / REUTERS
Five people were killed in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6th.
Hundreds of supporters of the then-US President Donald Trump had violently entered the country's power center.
One of the most important questions in the reappraisal: What role did Trump himself play in the escalation?
In order to clarify this, the parliamentary committee of inquiry in the US Congress would like to examine documents from the White House.
Trump wants to prevent such a step at all costs - and has called on his lawyers.
According to the lawsuit filed on Monday, he accuses members of the committee of illegally and unfoundedly violating executive privileges.
With this argument, Trump also tries to prevent the testimony of four former advisors.
Most recently, the parliamentary committee of inquiry itself threatened legal action on this issue.
Should Steve Bannon and three other former Trump advisors continue to refuse to cooperate, severe penalties are imminent.
Whether Trump can use executive privileges for his final weeks in office to prevent his ex-advisors from making a statement is legally controversial.
Litigation about this could delay Congress' investigation into the Assault on the Capitol.
The White House under Trump's successor Joe Biden had already made it clear at the beginning of October that it would cooperate with the committee and not accept the reprimand from executive privileges.
White House sees no arguments in Bannon
There is a process in which the former president has a deadline to assert executive privilege, said government spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
But then the current president has a deadline to consider this application.
For a first set of documents, Biden had come to the conclusion that confidentiality could not be invoked.
The White House recently announced that in the Steve Bannon case, too, there were no reasons why the ex-strategist should not testify before the committee.
In the worst case, anyone who does not obey the summons of the MPs could end up in prison, including Bannon.
Trump is currently positioning himself for a possible renewed candidacy for president in 2024.
If the special committee were to find more and more evidence that Trump and his followers were in fact deliberately working towards a coup, this would significantly reduce Trump's chances of re-election.
jok / Reuters