Politico:  “Sixty-six former lawmakers, including two dozen Republicans, have signed on to a legal brief urging a federal judge to reject former President Donald Trump’s effort to block Jan. 6 investigators from accessing his White House’s records.  The brief, which is slated to hit the docket in the D.C. federal District Court on Friday, contends that no possible argument about executive privilege could overcome Congress’ need for documents to probe the violent attack on the Capitol — one fueled by Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was stolen.

“‘From what is publicly known, it is clear that Donald Trump played an outsized — and likely central — role in orchestrating the events that gave rise to the January 6th attack,’ the lawmakers say in the 21-page brief, signed by 24 Republicans and 42 Democrats. ‘And many, and perhaps most, of the various means he used or contemplated are documented in the records the Committee seeks and are still not known.’  Though many of the lawmakers who signed the brief retired long before Trump’s tenure in office, the signatories include Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.), who lost reelection in 2018 and had been an outspoken Trump critic. They also include Reid Ribble, the Wisconsin Republican who announced his retirement amid Trump’s 2016 campaign for office, and Charles Boustany, the Louisiana Republican defeated in a Senate bid the same year.

“The lawmakers filed their brief under the umbrella of Protect Democracy, a nonprofit government watchdog. The group argues that Congress must fully understand the attack on the Capitol to appropriately craft a legislative remedy.  ‘Its power to do so here is not reduced — and is likely elevated — where the targets of the investigation include a former President and sitting Members of Congress,’ they write. ‘Under these circumstances, no personal interests of Donald Trump or disputed and unresolved questions of executive privilege could possibly tilt the scales against disclosing these records to the Select Committee.'”