A federal appeals court in Washington ruled on Friday that parts of a memo to Attorney General William Barr were wrongly shielded.
The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed a federal judge's May 2021.
The memo at issue was prepared at Barr's request by the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel, which was supposed to provide legal advice that would guide Barr's decision not to charge Trump with obstruction of justice.
The DOJ argued that the entire memo and related records should be kept out of the public eye.
The D.C. Circuit Court panel upheld the lower court's decision to keep the records under wraps.
The OLC memo did not contain a legal analysis of whether Barr should pursue charges against Trump, according to the panel.
The Department failed to justify its reliance on the deliberative-process privilege because it didn't tie the memo to deliberations about the decision.
A request for comment from the DOJ was not responded to.
If the DOJ pursues an additional appeal, the full memo may not be released soon.
The decision by Attorney General Garland to appeal the judge's ruling that ordered his department to release a document disappointed Trump critics and caused the Freedom of Information Act battle to go on for more than a year.
At 11:37 a.m., there was a new update.
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