Trump Wins, Temporarily At Least, As Court Blocks Document Dump

WASHINGTON, DC — Former President Donald Trump scored a temporary victory Thursday when a federal appeals court paused the release of documents to the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Trump's request to the Washington, D.C., appeals court was a last-ditch effort to stop the release of key White House records from his presidency. A lower court ruled earlier this week that Trump can't claim executive privilege to stop the release of records by the National Archives by 6 p.m. local time Friday.

The records sought by the committee include call logs, drafts of remarks and speeches and handwritten notes from Trump’s then-chief of staff, Mark Meadows. There are also copies of talking points from then-press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and “a draft Executive Order on the topic of election integrity,” the National Archives has said.

In denying Trump's request to block the release of the documents Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said Congress had a strong public interest in obtaining records that could shed light on a violent insurrection mounted by the former president’s supporters. She added that President Joe Biden had the authority to waive executive privilege over the documents despite Trump’s assertions otherwise.

“At bottom, this is a dispute between a former and incumbent President,” Chutkan said in her Tuesday order. “And the Supreme Court has already made clear that in such circumstances, the incumbent’s view is accorded greater weight.”

Trump “does not acknowledge the deference owed” to Biden’s judgment as the current president, Chutkan said. She noted examples of past presidents declining to assert executive privilege and rejected what she said was Trump’s claim that executive privilege “exists in perpetuity.”

“Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President,” she said.

The nine-member Select Committee is investigating not just Trump’s conduct on Jan. 6 — when he told a rally to “fight like hell” shortly before rioters overran law enforcement — but his efforts in the months before the riot to challenge election results or obstruct a peaceful transfer of power.

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