Former United States President Donald Trump continues his desperate attempt to prevent the House Select Committee from accessing White House records amid its investigations of the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot after a judge rejected his previous emergency request.
The former president's latest attempt has his legal team looking to an appeals court to prevent the National Archives from releasing the records to the House Select Committee. On Friday, United States Archivist David Ferriero is expected to start releasing the documents to the committee.
Trump's Desperate Attempts
Trump hit his latest snag after U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied two different attempts by his lawyer to block the disputed records from being released to the committee. Chutkan said in her Wednesday ruling that Trump's requests were similar to his original preliminary injunction motion and provided no new facts or arguments that could persuade the court to reconsider.
Judge Chutkan noted that Trump had already filed a notice of an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit previously. She added that the former president was "therefore free to petition that Court for relief" before Friday, CNBC reported.
Trump's lawyers had requested Chutkan to pause enforcement of her ruling while the Republican businessman appeals his case to a higher court. The former president previously made a similar request to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which has not yet taken action on his request.
Chutkan's ruling gives the House Select Committee the authority to access telephone records, visitor logs, and other White House documents that Trump is desperately trying to hide. The Republican businessman argues that the documents that the committee was requesting were covered by a legal doctrine known as an executive privilege which keeps them confidential.
However, in Tuesday's ruling, Chutkan rejected the argument, giving a much-needed win for congressional oversight powers. The incident being investigated occurred on Jan. 6 and caused the death of four people, one of whom was shot dead by police while the other three were of natural causes. The unprecedented incident also caused 100 police officers to be injured when a large mob stormed the Capitol, Reuters reported.
White House Records
The rioters scaled the walls of the U.S. Capitol, demolished barricades, and smashed windows amid their violent attempt to gain control of the building. The protesters were trying to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election results that Biden had won and that Trump had called fraudulent.
The incident marked the first time since the 1860 election that the transfer of executive power was distinctly not peaceful. A transcript of the ruling noted that Trump was challenging the legality of the committee's requests for certain records.
The ruling noted that in the months after losing the election, Trump had repeatedly claimed that the election was rigged and stolen from him. In a speech on Dec. 2, 2020, the Republican businessman alleged "tremendous voter fraud and irregularities" that resulted from a late-night "massive dump" of votes that caused Biden to take the lead, Newsweek reported.
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