President Trump is fighting attempts to make him testify and produce documents related to his takeover of the Kennedy Center.
In a court filing Wednesday, Trump asserted executive privilege, claiming that in her lawsuit, Kennedy Center board member and Democratic Representative Joyce Beatty initiated “overbroad discovery requests that expressly implicated the President’s involvement in the Kennedy Center’s management and operations, and called for information, documents, and communications concerning that involvement.”
“Those requests are improper, and this Court should deny Plaintiff’s motion to compel. Plaintiff’s arguments to the contrary fail to convince,” the president’s deputy assistant and deputy counsel, Joshua Hoyt, wrote in the document.
Beatty sued Trump late last year over his attempts to take over the center, add his name, and shut it down for repairs. Since then, the president has pressed on with his handpicked board of trustees, rebranding the center with his name and closing it so it can be renovated to his liking, defying multiple court orders along the way.
Now Trump is refusing to testify or provide documentation about his involvement, asserting executive privilege over a pet project that shouldn’t be anywhere near his top priorities as president. His takeover has not so coincidentally coincided with the center’s financial collapse, with most of its cash reserves gone. Donations and pledges are drying up, and ticket sales have plummeted.
“The burst happened up the pipe,” said Andrew Taylor, director of the arts management program at American University, to The Washington Post last month. “The water stopped flowing into the organization because of the choices the administration was making.”
Trump claims that only his name and takeover can save the center from physical and financial ruin. But it seems that things have only gotten worse since he got involved, much like everything else in the U.S.