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Former Trump adviser Stephen Miller is suing the House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection in an effort to block a subpoena for his phone records.
The complaint, filed in Washington, D.C., federal court, argues that because Miller's phone is connected to a shared family plan, the committee's request for phone records was too broad.
Miller is one of dozens of people who have been subpoenaed by the investigating committee in the year since the attack on the Capitol. The list also includes ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, a host of other former Trump administration officials and people involved in organizing the January 6 rally that preceded the riot.
"Because Mr. Miller's phone number is included with other numbers assigned by T-Mobile to the family plan account, in the absence of explicit instructions from the Committee, it is possible that T-Mobile may respond to the subpoena by producing data for other numbers assigned to the family plan account," the complaint reads.
Carron Drive Apartments, a California limited partnership, is listed as a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit. The filing states that Carron Drive is the subscriber for the T-Mobile family plan account that Miller, his parents and other family members use.
Several of the people included in the family plan "are practicing attorneys who use their phones for privileged call and text communications with clients and to otherwise conduct their law practices," the filing reads.
The complaint said that T-Mobile notified Carron Drive in a letter late last month that it had been subpoenaed by the House committee for "subscriber information" and "connection records and records of session times and durations" from Miller's phone number between November 1, 2020, and January 31, 2021.
T-Mobile informed Carron Drive that it planned to comply with the request by the March 11 deadline unless it received documentation by March 9 that a motion had been filed to block the subpoena, the complaint said.
The complaint says that during the three-month period from which the committee was seeking Miller's phone records, he used his cellphone for business communications and "to consult with doctors and other healthcare professionals regarding the serious medical complications that his wife and baby daughter experienced before and after his daughter was born on November 19, 2020."
"These medical consultations involved sensitive, private matters that are entirely irrelevant to the work of the Select Committee," the filing reads.
It added that the lawsuit was meant to secure court protection from the panel'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."
Newsweek has reached out to the Select Committee and a lawyer listed for Miller for comment.
Miller is not the first official to push back against the panel during its investigation. The House has voted to hold both Bannon and Meadows in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with subpoeanas.
Former President Donald Trump has also accused the committee of "destroying democracy" to block him from running again for president.
Update 03/09/22, 4:55 p.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information and background.
About the writer
Zoe Strozewski is a Newsweek reporter based in New Jersey. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and global politics. Zoe ... Read more