Judge refuses Trump’s overnight request to stop the release of documents to the House Committee investigating the Jan 6 capital riot. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan declined to issue a preliminary injunction sought by Trump’s lawyers. Chutkan said President Joe Biden was best positioned to determine whether to waive executive privilege on documents sought by the House. Chutkan decided that a former president’s wishes could not overcome the decisions of the current president regarding protecting privileged information of the executive branch. Trump does not acknowledge the deference owed to Biden’s judgment as to the current president.
She said Presidents are not kings and the plaintiff is not the president. Chutkan wrote This is a dispute between a former and incumbent President. The National Archives has said it would turn over records by Friday absent a court order stopping it from doing so. Trump filed notice that he would appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The case is likely to eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court.Â
The court holds that 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 6 and to consider legislation to prevent such events from ever occurring again.
We can only do that by getting access to the information. I applaud our lawyers who defended us in this court setting, the Mississippi Democrat said. I applaud the expeditious ruling that we got because we have to get to this.