US judge refuses Trump request to block riot records
WASHINGTON (AP) – A federal judge rejected former US president Donald Trump’s request to block the release of documents to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
In denying a preliminary injunction, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan said Tuesday that Congress had a strong public interest in obtaining records that could shed light on a violent insurrection mounted by the former president’s supporters.
Chutkan added that US President Joe Biden had the authority to waive executive privilege over the documents despite Trump’s assertions otherwise.
Barring a court order, the National Archives plans to turn over Trump’s records to the committee by Friday. But Trump’s lawyers swiftly promised an appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The case will likely eventually head to the US Supreme Court.
“At bottom, this is a dispute between a former and incumbent president,” Chutkan wrote. “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.
According to an earlier court filing from the archives, the records include call logs, drafts of remarks and speeches and handwritten notes from Trump’s thenchief 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.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chairs the House committee, said in a statement after the ruling that the records are crucial for understanding the attack and “in my view, there couldn’t be a more compelling public interest than getting answers about an attack on our democracy.”
On CNN, Thompson said Trump should stop behaving like a “spoiled brat.”
The nine-member House 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.