DOJ says Trump invoked executive privilege to block Kennedy Center documents in Beatty suit

The Justice Department told a federal court that President Donald Trump formally asserted the presidential communications privilege to block disclosure of documents and communications sought by Representative Joyce Beatty in her lawsuit over the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

In a sworn declaration, Joshua Hoyt, a deputy White House counsel, said he acted “at the direction of the President” in invoking the privilege for information requested by Beatty’s legal team.

The department filed a separate brief asking the court on October 15, 2026, to deny Beatty’s motion to compel the materials, calling her requests an improper “fishing expedition.” Hoyt’s declaration and the DOJ filing describe the privilege as covering communications between the President, his advisors — including advisers who are not government officials — and Kennedy Center staff about the centre’s management and operations.

The White House filing specifically cited Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and . Hoyt’s language frames the asserted privilege broadly, saying it applies to “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 John F.

Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.” Rep. Beatty’s legal team disputed the invocation in public statements and court filings.

Her attorneys, Norm Eisen of Democracy Defenders Action and Nathaniel Zelinsky of Washington Litigation Group, argued that because Trump serves as chair of the Kennedy Center’s board under the center’s congressional charter, he is a defendant in his private capacity as chairman and therefore the presidential privilege does not shield the requested materials. Beatty’s Oct.

6 filing (cited in reporting) contended there were no grounds to claim the privilege in this posture. The DOJ filing counters that the requested evidence is irrelevant and that Beatty’s pursuit does not justify piercing the asserted privilege.

The competing submissions present the court with a legal question about when and how the presidential communications privilege applies to interactions that touch on a congressionally chartered cultural institution where the president also holds a leadership role.

The White House and DOJ portray the matter as a confidentiality prerogative tied to the president’s duties and communications with advisers; Beatty’s side frames the invocation as an effort to shield management decisions at the Kennedy Center from judicial scrutiny.

The filings identify specific actors and documents the parties dispute but do not provide an exhaustive list of the materials withheld, and the court has yet to rule on the privilege claim.

This dispute turns on legal interpretation: whether communications involving the president in his capacity as chair of the Kennedy Center’s board remain within the scope of presidential communications privilege, and whether Beatty’s role as plaintiff in litigation against the center changes that analysis.

The filings already filed in the case cite individual advisers and the institution’s executive director, but the factual record in the public filings does not establish which precise documents or communications are being withheld.