Trump Formally Invokes Executive Privilege to Shield Kennedy Center Communications in Rep. Beatty’s Lawsuit
A White House lawyer has told a federal judge that President Donald Trump is formally invoking executive privilege to keep his communications about the Kennedy Center out of a lawsuit brought by Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio.
In a sworn declaration filed Wednesday, Oct. 14, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Joshua T. Hoyt, deputy assistant and deputy counsel to the president, wrote: “At the direction of the President, I submit this declaration formally invoking the presidential communications privilege with respect to information, documents, and communications requested in discovery by Plaintiff.” NBC News first reported the filing Thursday.
The case is Beatty v. Trump, No. 1:25-cv-04480, before U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper.
WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE IS SHIELDING WITH EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE
Hoyt’s declaration says the privilege 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 John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.” It also reaches communications that do not include Trump but are “to or from his advisors and/or Kennedy Center staff.”
The declaration lists specific document requests, interrogatories and deposition questions it covers, including the deposition of Matthew Floca, a defendant in the case, and says the withheld material includes, “for example, communications involving Secretary Howard Lutnick that relayed presidential decision-making or were intended to inform presidential deliberations.”
Without the privilege, Hoyt wrote, “presidential advisors and their staff members would be chilled from gathering relevant information, exploring alternatives, and providing fully informed recommendations regarding the performance of the President’s duties.”
WHAT THE LAWSUIT CLAIMS
Beatty, an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees, sued Trump, the center and its trustees in December 2025. According to Judge Cooper’s May 29, 2026, opinion, Trump replaced several trustees in February 2025, appointed himself to the board and was elected chair; the board voted in December 2025 to rename the institution the “Trump Kennedy Center”; and on Feb. 1, 2026, Trump announced the center would close for two years.
In that May ruling, Cooper sided with Beatty on the name, writing, “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.” He also blocked the board’s March 16 closure vote, finding the board had likely violated its fiduciary duty. The board voted again to close the main building on Aug. 13 and Sept. 15, according to a Cooper order dated Oct. 9, and the government has asked the court to lift the injunction.
In an Oct. 5 motion to compel, Beatty’s lawyers argued the board’s August 2026 closure vote, like its earlier one, was “designed to rubber stamp Trump’s February ukase,” and that “the Department’s sweeping assertion of privilege, however, appears to be unprecedented.” They wrote that the Kennedy Center “is not an Article II entity” and “does not exercise executive power,” and that Trump “voluntarily assumed the ‘usual powers and obligations of a trustee.’”
In a statement reported by NBC News, Beatty’s attorneys, Norm Eisen and Nathaniel Zelinsky, said Trump “is now trying to shield his management by improperly invoking executive privilege” and called it “a direct assault on the rule of law.”
WHAT THE GOVERNMENT ARGUES
In its response filed the same day, the Justice Department asked Cooper to deny the motion. It argued that Congress tasked the president with appointing the center’s general trustees, so “the President’s involvement with respect to the Kennedy Center is undoubtedly in his official capacity.” Overlap with Trump’s role as chairman, the filing says, “is no reason to sweep aside the obvious separation-of-powers concerns posed by Plaintiff’s fishing expedition.”
The department said the board’s votes to temporarily close the center are “the sole remaining issue in front of the Court” and that Beatty “has already obtained extensive discovery—far more than needed.” It concluded: “At bottom, Plaintiff presents an extraordinarily weak justification for an extraordinarily intrusive discovery campaign.”
WHAT COMES NEXT
Cooper has not ruled on the privilege claim. His Oct. 9 order extended discovery through Oct. 23. NBC News reported that the center closed Sept. 15 on what officials described as a temporary basis for emergency safety assessments and has not reopened.
Sources: Declaration of Joshua T. Hoyt, ECF No. 106-1 (Oct. 14, 2026): https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.287972/gov.uscourts.dcd.287972.106.1.pdf | Defendants’ Response to Motion to Compel, ECF No. 106 (Oct. 14, 2026): https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.287972/gov.uscourts.dcd.287972.106.0.pdf | Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel, ECF No. 96 (Oct. 5, 2026): https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.287972/gov.uscourts.dcd.287972.96.0_1.pdf | Memorandum Opinion, ECF No. 50 (May 29, 2026): https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.287972/gov.uscourts.dcd.287972.50.0.pdf | Order, ECF No. 103 (Oct. 9, 2026): https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.287972/gov.uscourts.dcd.287972.103.0.pdf | CourtListener docket, Beatty v. Trump, No. 1:25-cv-04480 (D.D.C.): https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72493354/beatty-v-trump/ | NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/president-invokes-executive-privilege-kennedy-center-court-fight-rcna603701
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