Judge questions Trump’s grounds for blocking access to riot documents

WASHINGTON >> A federal judge on Thursday expressed skepticism about Donald Trump’s attempt to block from release a wide range of documents related to the Capitol riot, signaling that she might be open to allowing a congressional committee scrutinizing the violence to pore over hundreds of files that the former president wants to keep secret.

At a hearing by video conference, Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia repeatedly asked pointed questions about the legal basis for Trump’s claim that at least 770 pages of documents related to the mob attack must be shielded by executive privilege.

“The Jan. 6 riot happened in the Capitol,” Chutkan told Trump’s lawyer, Justin Clark. “That is literally Congress’s house.”

Still, Chutkan also suggested that the House select committee investigating the attack might have overreached, referring to its demand for documents — which potentially amounts to millions of pages — as “very broad” and, at one point, “alarmingly broad.”

The hearing was the first legal skirmish in what is likely to be a prolonged battle in the courts between the panel and Trump over executive secrecy, congressional prerogatives and how to balance the two in an inquiry into what role a former president played in the events that led to a violent attempt to thwart the peaceful transfer of power.

The panel is looking into the origins of the assault, in which a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol seeking to disrupt Congress’s counting of electoral votes to formalize President Joe Biden’s victory.

During arguments, Douglas Letter, general counsel of the House, said the committee was undertaking “one of the most important” investigations in congressional history.

Letter said the committee’s requests needed to be broad because it was not only scrutinizing the Capitol attack, but also Trump’s lies about the election, attempts to undermine faith in American democracy and plans to try to cling to power.

Clark said Trump had a valid claim to keeping the information private.

“The former president has rights,” he said. “There’s a constitutionally based privilege that the former president can assert over documents.”

It was unclear how quickly Chutkan might rule. Any decision is likely to result in an appeal.

Democrats have worried that Trump is trying to delay their inquiry until Republicans have the chance to retake control of the House in 2022 and end the investigation into the attack.