Former United States President Donald Trump, in his desperate attempts, has achieved a minor victory after a federal appeals court on Thursday granted a temporary pause in the Jan. 6 House Select Committee's access to the Republican businessman's White House records.
A three-judge panel from the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Ketanji Brown Jackson, U.S. President Joe Biden's first and only appointee to that court, will be responsible for hearing arguments regarding the matter on Nov. 30. The delay, while marking a minor victory for Trump, is a small delay for the Jan. 6 committee.
Desperate Attempts
The House Select Committee, which is responsible for investigating the tragic unprecedented events of the Capitol Hill riot, prevailed in U.S. District Court against Trump's desperate efforts to block access to House records. The National Archives has been preparing to hand over the first batch of requested files to the committee by Friday afternoon.
There were only a small group of documents included in the first batch that were scheduled to be delivered on Friday, only 70 pages. However, subsequent tranches that the National Archives identified include hundreds of pages that were set to be given out on Nov. 26, Politico reported.
The other two individuals that will be on the appellate panel considering Trump's request are Judges Patricia Millett and Robert Wilkins. In a brief two-page order, the panel said that the purpose of the administrative injunction was to protect the jurisdiction of the court to address the appellant's claims of executive privilege and should not be taken as a ruling on the merits.
Trump's filing of the appeal is his latest effort to prevent the Jan. 6 committee from accessing the House records on Friday's deadline that will include 46 pages. The documents will have White House call logs, visitor logs, drafts of speeches, and three handwritten memos from Trump's then-chief of staff Mark Meadows.
The former president is currently trying to prevent a total of 700 documents from being accessed by the select committee that is set to be given out in the following weeks. Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected Trump's attempts for a preliminary injunction to prevent the disclosure of the documents twice, CNN reported.
Trump's Legal Battle
Despite his small victory, Trump still faces an uphill battle in his attempts to prevent the select committee from accessing House records during his presidency. A member of the House panel, Rep. Jamie Raskin, said that the struggle of Trump's legal team will now have to focus on convincing a higher court to reverse Chutkan's ruling.
"I thought it was a brilliant and devastating opinion for Donald Trump and his fading hopes of burying the truth here. It was just meticulous on the facts, the statutory arguments and the constitutional arguments,' said Raskin, who was also the lead impeachment manager in the case against the former president earlier this year," NPR reported.
In a Twitter post, Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich said that the appeal could be the former president's best way for victory. He added that the Appellate Courts were destined to decide the battle to defend executive privilege.
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