Trump Asks Supreme Court to Block Turnover of Jan. 6 Records (2)

Former President Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the release of his White House papers to a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, confronting the court with the fallout from the riot for the first time.

Trump is seeking to override President Joe Biden’s decision to waive executive privilege over the documents. A federal appeals court said Biden’s stance and Congress’s need for the documents combined to outweigh Trump’s claim of secrecy.

The attack, which grew out of Trump’s efforts to overturn the presidential election results, took place as Congress was meeting to certify Biden’s victory. Trump and his allies have resisted the House select committee’s effort to investigate the attack and determine exactly what role the former president played.

In separate requests, Trump on Thursday asked the justices to take up his appeal and block release of the records in the meantime. The appeals court had given him 14 days to seek Supreme Court intervention. The documents will remain secret until the high court acts.

The disputed records, being held by the National Archives, include visitor and call logs, emails, draft speeches and handwritten notes. Trump is objecting to the release of about 800 pages of material, saying they involve protected presidential communications.

“Congress may not rifle through the confidential presidential papers of a former president to meet political objectives or advance a case study,” Trump’s lawyers argued in court papers. “These sweeping requests are indicative of the committee’s broad investigation of a political foe, divorced from any of Congress’s legislative functions” laid out in the Constitution.

Representative Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who chairs the panel of seven Democrats and two Republicans, urged the court to put the case on a fast track for resolution. Thompson and the committee on Thursday asked the justices to schedule Trump’s appeal for discussion at their private conference on Jan. 14.

“The select committee needs the requested documents now to help shape the direction of the investigation and allow the select committee to timely recommend remedial legislation,” they argued. “The public has a significant interest in the expeditious consideration of remedial measures aimed at securing the safety and soundness of our democratic processes and institutions.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said in a 3-0 decision said the records were vital to the committee’s investigation.

The committee has “demonstrated a sound factual predicate for requesting these presidential documents specifically,” Judge Patricia Millett said for the panel, which consisted of three Democratic appointees. “There is a direct linkage between the former president and the events of the day.”

The cases are Trump v. Thompson, 21-932, and Trump v. Thompson, 21A272.

(Updates to reflect congressional request for fast-track handling in seventh paragraph)

To contact the reporter on this story:
Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Elizabeth Wasserman at ewasserman2@bloomberg.net

Jon Morgan, John Harney

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