WASHINGTON – The National Archives and Records Administration has provided a House committee with more than 700 pages of presidential documents after the Supreme Court rejected former President Donald Trump’s bid to block the release.
The House panel investigating the January 6, 2021 Capitol Uprising obtained documents Thursday evening, according to a person familiar with the handover, who requested anonymity to discuss it. The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the archives could alter documents, including presidential diaries, visitor logs, speech drafts and handwritten notes dating to Jan.
Trump’s lawyers had expected the court battle to prolong and put the documents on hold.
The document, which the panel first requested in August, will add to the thousands the committee has already gathered as it investigates an attack by a violent mob of Trump supporters and what the former president and his aides were doing. , when it came to the fore. The panel has conducted nearly 350 interviews and plans a series of hearings and reports this year as it seeks to compile its most comprehensive accounting of the rebellion ever.
Trump’s lawsuit to block the release was one of several attempts to hinder the committee’s work as he and his aides play down the attack. Hundreds of Trump supporters violently pushed police and smashed windows and doors of the Capitol, obstructing President Joe Biden’s certification of victory.
As the current chairman, Biden approved the release of most records. But the White House asked the panel to postpone some of its requests, citing executive privilege concerns designed to protect national security and the office of the President.
Reiterating their arguments before lower courts, Trump’s lawyers urged the judges to step in, arguing that the case pertains to all future White House occupants. Trump’s lawyers said former presidents “had a clear right to protect their confidential records from premature dissemination.”
In an unsigned opinion, the court acknowledged that there are “serious and substantial concerns” over whether a former president can win a court order preventing the disclosure of certain records from his time in office in such a situation. .
But the court noted that the appeals court determined that Trump’s claim of privilege over the documents would fail under any circumstances, “even if he was the incumbent.” It said the issue of a former president’s ability to claim executive privileges would have to wait another day.
The House committee responded in its High Court brief that although the facts of the case are “unprecedented,” the decision was “not a difficult one.”
Of the judges alone, Clarence Thomas said he would have accepted Trump’s request.
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