Trump’s White House records on Jan. 6 attack can be accessed by Congress, judge rules
Global News
The judge rejected an argument by Trump's lawyers that the documents should be hidden from the Jan. 6 committee under executive privilege.
A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that a U.S. House of Representatives committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol can access former President Donald Trump’s White House records, in a win for congressional investigators.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in the District of Columbia rejected an argument by Trump’s lawyers that telephone records, visitor logs and other White House documents should be hidden from the committee.
Trump had argued that the materials requested by the House committee were covered by a legal doctrine known as executive privilege that protects the confidentiality of some White House communications.
He requested an injunction blocking the National Archives, a federal agency that holds his White House records, from complying with the committee’s document requests.
The committee has said it needs the requested materials to understand the role Trump may have played in fomenting the riot.
Biden largely waived executive privilege on documents held by the White House. The records that would be given to the committee include call logs, drafts of remarks and speeches and handwritten notes from Trump’s then-chief of staff, Mark Meadows, according to a court filing by the National Archives. 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.
Trump is expected to appeal the ruling and it is likely to eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
Trump gave an incendiary speech before the assault on the Capitol, repeating his false claims that the November 2020 election was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud and urging his supporters to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell” to “stop the steal.”