Salesforce has found itself embroiled in a legal battle regarding
the Congressional investigation of the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The Republican National Committee has filed a lawsuit, asking the court to squash a subpoena issued by the
Select Committee seeking what it says is a range of data on Republican donors.
The RNC uses the Salesforce Marketing Cloud platform to support its electoral and fundraising activities,
and did so during the period surrounding the 2020 Presidential Election and inauguration of President Biden.
The filing asks the court to rule that the subpoena
violates the RNC’s First Amendment rights and the Stored Communications Act -- and that it is overly broad and lacks Congressional authorization.
The suit, which is on file with
the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, also names Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Bennie G. Thompson (chair of the Select Committee), Rep. Elizabeth Cheney (as vice chair of the committee) Rep. Adam
B. Schiff, Rep. Jamie B. Raskin and other House members. The RNC announced on Tuesday that it had added Salesforce to the action.
The Select Committee subpoena was issued to
Salesforce on February 23, setting March 9 as a deadline for producing the documents. Salesforce counsel said the firm would withhold the documents while the lawsuit filed on March 9 is
pending.
However, Salesforce later said it could not withhold documents, the complaint says. The deadline for document production was pushed to March 16, and the
deadline for a deposition to March 23.
The breadth of the Select Committee’s request to Salesforce is “astounding,” the RNC filing
argues.
“If forced to comply, Salesforce would disclose records regarding whether and how individual RNC supporters have responded to emails (including at what time
they opened such emails), reacted to specific political messaging, signed any RNC petitions, completed any surveys on specific issues and policy proposals, or responded to specific fundraising
appeals,” the RNC states.
This disclosure would also include “information regarding individual voting habits, involvement in various coalition groups and even what political
merchandise they liked best.”
While the RNC has named Salesforce as a defendant, it “does not believe that Salesforce has breached any contractual or other duty
to the RNC,” the suit says.
Salesforce had not responded to a request for comment at deadline.