The musician Chuck Redd, who canceled a Christmas Eve performance at the Kennedy Center after citing President Donald Trump’s influence over the venue, is asking a judge to throw out the performing arts institution’s lawsuit. In a motion filed in D.C. Superior Court on Friday, Redd’s lawyers argued that the Kennedy Center cannot enforce a booking agreement because they said the contract the institution provided was never signed.
The motion challenges the Kennedy Center’s case at the basic level of contract obligations, according to the filing described in the lawsuit report. Redd’s attorneys said the breach of contract claim should be dismissed because he was not contractually required to perform under an agreement he did not sign. They also framed the dispute as more than a contract fight, arguing that the lawsuit reflects an effort to deter artists from publicly disagreeing with decisions made by those in power.
In a statement included with the motion, lawyers Debra S. Katz and Lisa J. Banks said the Kennedy Center brought the case “to send a message to anyone who dares to publicly disagree with the decisions of those in power,” according to the report. The filing described in the story did not include a response from Kennedy Center representatives, who were not immediately available for comment on the motion.
Redd, a drummer and vibraphone player who has toured with artists including Dizzy Gillespie and Ray Brown, has been a fixture at the Kennedy Center’s holiday schedule. The report said he has presided over holiday “Jazz Jams” at the venue since 2006 and called off last year’s performance shortly after the Kennedy Center’s board voted to add the president’s name to the facility.
Redd said in an email at the time of the cancellation that he made the decision after he saw the name change. The report said he told the Associated Press that when he saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and later on the building, he chose to cancel the concert. Shortly after his decision, Richard Grenell, then the Kennedy Center’s president, sent him a letter describing the cancellation as “classic intolerance and very costly to a nonprofit Arts institution,” and threatened to seek $1 million in damages, the report said.
The Kennedy Center filed its lawsuit on March 6, and the report said Grenell left his post earlier this month. Matt Floca, previously managing the Kennedy Center’s facilities operations, replaced Grenell as president, the report said. The story also said Trump is closing the Kennedy Center later this summer for renovations expected to last roughly two years, a backdrop as the lawsuit moves forward in court.