A federal judge has rejected former US president Donald Trump’s request to block the release of documents to the House committee investigating the January 6th Capitol riot.
In denying a preliminary injunction on Tuesday, US District judge Tanya Chutkan said Congress had a strong public interest in obtaining records that could shed light on a violent insurrection mounted by the former president’s supporters.
She added that US president Joe Biden had the authority to waive executive privilege over the documents despite Mr Trump’s assertions otherwise.
Barring a court order, the National Archives plans to turn over Mr Trump’s records to the committee by Friday.
But Mr 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.
Ms Chutkan wrote: “At bottom, this is a dispute between a former and incumbent president.
“And the Supreme Court has already made clear that in such circumstances, the incumbent’s view is accorded greater weight.”
Mr Trump “does not acknowledge the deference owed” to Mr Biden’s judgment as the current president, Ms Chutkan said.
She noted examples of past presidents declining to assert executive privilege and rejected what she said was Mr 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 Mr Trump’s then-chief 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.
Bennie Thompson, who chairs the House committee, told CNN on Tuesday that Ms Chutkan’s ruling was “a big deal” and said Mr Trump should stop behaving like a “spoiled brat”.
“I look forward to getting this information,” Mr Thompson said.
“I look forward to our investigators going through it with a fine-tooth comb to make sure that our government was not weaponised against its citizens.”
The nine-member House committee is investigating not just Mr Trump’s conduct on January 6th — 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.
The committee has interviewed more than 150 witnesses and issued more than 30 subpoenas, including ones announced on Tuesday to Ms McEnany and former top adviser Stephen Miller. It has not yet issued one for Mr Trump.
The former president has repeatedly attacked the committee’s work and continued to promote unfounded conspiracy theories about the election.
In suing to block the National Archives from turning over documents, Mr Trump called the House panel’s request a “vexatious, illegal fishing expedition” that was “untethered from any legitimate legislative purpose”.
Allowing the House to get access to his records would also damage executive privilege for future presidents, Mr Trump’s lawyers argued.
But Ms Chutkan said the “the public interest lies in permitting — not enjoining — the combined will of the legislative and executive branches to study the events that led to and occurred on January 6th, and to consider legislation to prevent such events from ever occurring again”.
Mr Trump’s spokesperson Taylor Budowich tweeted late on Tuesday that the case “was destined to be decided by the Appellate Courts”.
He added that “Trump remains committed to defending the Constitution & the Office of the Presidency, & will be seeing this process through”.
