A federal appeals court on Thursday afternoon declined to stop a House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot from receiving a trove of Trump-era White House records.
President Donald Trump is in Washington, D.C. for a rally on January 6.
The images are from the same company.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court judge's decision rejecting Trump's request to stop the federal government from handing over a range of records to the House of Representatives' January 6 select committee.
The case was decided by Judge Millett and two other appellate judges, who did not note any dissents.
The appeals court said executive privilege is normally up to the current president, not a former one, and that President Joe Biden rejected privilege claims last month.
The court said that Congress has a clear interest in investigating the Capitol riot and that the select committee's request for Trump Administration documents is legitimate.
The appeals court wrote that the incumbent's judgement warrants deference when a former president disagrees about the need to keep presidential communications confidential.
We don't know what we don't know.
It is not clear if Trump will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court. Forbes reached out to the office of Trump.
Last month, the appeals court temporarily blocked the federal government from turning over some records to the select committee while it reviewed Trump's appeal. The injunction will be lifted in 14 days, giving Trump time to ask the Supreme Court to review it.
The select committee, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, has subpoenaed dozens of people and requested a wide range of records, covering both the January 6 riot and Trump's unsuccessful months-long ploy to overturn his election loss. The National Archives and Records Administration was asked to turn over White House call logs, visitor records, details of former Vice President Mike Pence's movements during the riot and documents tied to Trump's voter fraud allegations. Trump filed a lawsuit against Biden because he did not assert the executive privilege that Trump argued was covered by the records.
The select committee is having difficulty with executive privilege claims. Federal prosecutors indicted Steve Bannon for contempt of Congress after he refused to testify about executive privilege. Lawmakers are considering recommending contempt charges for MarkMeadows and Jeffrey Clark, who told the committee they can't comply with its subpoenas due to executive privilege. The members of the select committee and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were sued on Wednesday.
