This afternoon Trump’s top xenophobia aide sued the January 6 Commission in federal court in DC to block a subpoena for his phone records, which he describes as “overly broad” and violative of his First and Fourth Amendment rights as well as the Stored Communications Act.
Captioned Carron Drive Apartments LP v. House Select Committee, the first plaintiff is a California company which is the listed subscriber for the cell phone plan Miller’s parents got through T-Mobile for Stephen and their other children. Yes, a 36-year-old DC resident with a wife and child is still on his parents’ phone plan, totally normal.
Indeed, Miller seems to be trying to present himself as “normal” (good luck!), taking a less maximalist position than his fellow Trumplanders who allege that the Committee is illegal because it has no members named by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and lacks a legitimate legislative purpose.
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“Plaintiffs do not dispute the legitimacy of the Select Committee’s investigation into the facts and circumstances surrounding the events at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021,” his lawyers write, acknowledging that DC Circuit just affirmed the Committee’s legitimate “legislative purpose” in Trump’s dispute with the National Archives, and the Supreme Court allowed it to stand. But “there are important differences between that case and the present controversy,” Miller insists.
In his telling, trawling through the former president’s official records may be kosher, but trawling through Miller’s personal phone records is not.
“The Subpoena is not ‘related to, and in furtherance of, a legitimate task of the Congress’ and should be quashed,” he argues.
And Miller may be seeking to present himself as “normal,” but he’s certainly not above using the same fudge about exactly what data the Committee is seeking to imply that his whole family’s phone records are being seized in some kind of dragnet.
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Carron Drive and Mr. Miller have filed this Complaint to obtain this Court’s protection from the Select Committee’s intrusive and unjustified attempt to violate the privacy rights that Mr. Miller and, potentially, the other members of the Miller family have under the Family Plan Account
In point of fact, it’s pretty clear that Congress can get “non-content information” via subpoena, which is what the subpoena asks for, and specifically for Miller’s phone. His parents’ numbers aren’t going to come into it, nor is the medical information for Miller’s sick infant daughter, which he has no shame about invoking here.
Miller recently received a subpoena for testimony from the Committee, which notes that, “by his own account participated in efforts to spread false information about alleged voter fraud in the November 2020 election, as well as efforts to encourage state legislatures to alter the outcome of the November 2020 election by appointing alternate slates of electors.” No doubt the Committee will argue that Miller, like everyone else in the White House, used his personal cell phone to plan the rally that became a riot.
Indeed Miller is making common cause with former White House colleagues, requesting that his case be designated related to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’s own suit against the Committee, which has been assigned to Judge Carl John Nichols.
And Miller is not above some performative partisanship, asserting that “It is no secret that the Select Committee includes political adversaries of former President Donald J. Trump and, in the absence of a legitimate purpose, compelling the production of Mr. Miller’s records may improperly disclose information to persons who are interested in merely making partisan points or harassing Mr. Miller.”
Well, good luck to him. Maybe when this is all over, he can get his own big boy phone. No rush!
Carron Drive Apartments LP v. UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SELECT COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE THE JANUARY 6TH ATTACK ON THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL [Docket via Court Listener]
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.