Appeals Court issues brief hold on release of files
Congress was set to receive batch of Trump records
A federal appeals court issued a shortterm injunction Thursday blocking the National Archives from turning over to Congress documents from the Trump White House related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, a day before the House committee investigating the attack was set to receive the first batch.
The move, by a threejudge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, will preserve the status quo for now while lawyers for former President Donald Trump, Congress and the Biden administration submit briefs over the next two weeks and hold arguments Nov. 30. The briefs will address whether the court should further block any transfer of papers as the litigants turn to arguing over the merits of the case.
The Jan. 6 committee has demanded detailed records about Trump’s movements and meetings on the day of the assault, when Trump led a “Stop the Steal” rally and his supporters then stormed the Capitol in an attempt to block Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
Trump has invoked executive privilege over the first tranche of archival materials from his White House. But Biden has declined to echo that assertion, instead instructing the National Archives to turn over those materials Friday.
Last month, Trump sued the National Archives and Congress in an attempt to block that production. Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected Trump’s challenge and declined a request by Trump’s lawyer that she block the National Archives from turning over the files while the former president pursued an appeal of her ruling.
Trump’s legal team then asked the appeals court for the brief pause, while proposing an expedited schedule for briefing on whether the court should issue a lengthier injunction during the appeal.