The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a lawsuit Friday shortly after Trump's announcement demanding the Department of Justices Office of Legal Counsel"provide documents concerning the legal authority of the president to invoke emergency powers..."
"Americans deserve to know the true basis for President Trumps unprecedented decision to enact emergency powers to pay for a border wall," CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement. "Were suing because the government has so far failed produce the requested documents or provide an explanation for their delay."
CREW's lawsuit is seeking to have the Justice Department honor their January Freedom of Information Act request regarding documents showing "relevant communications, including legal opinions, from OLC, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense" as they relate to Trump's previous threats to declare a national emergency.
The emergency declaration is already expected to face a litany of legal challenges.
Early Friday morning, ABC News reported the Justice Department had warned the White House about the prospect that his actions could be temporarily blocked by the courts.
Other prominent lawmakers even those supporting Trump have also questioned the president's legal authority to follow through with the declaration, which seeks to redirect certain appropriated funds to build an extension of the border wall.
But White House Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney brushed aside concerns that what the president was doing was in any way unprecedented during a conference call with reporters before the announcement.
"There's been some concern in the media about whether or not this creates a dangerous precedent," Mulvaney said. "It actually creates zero precedent. This is authority given to the president in the law already. It's not as if he just didn't get what he wanted so he's waving a magic wand and taking a bunch of money."
"I saw Nancy Pelosi said yesterday this sets a precedent for the Democrats to declare a gun emergency the next time they're in the Oval Office. That's completely false," he added. "If Democrats could've figured out a way to do it, they would have done that already."
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