Trump Asks Supreme Court to Block Release of His White House Records to Jan. 6 Panel
17:02 GMT 23.12.2021 (Updated: 22:37 GMT 23.12.2021)
© AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite
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Former US President Donald Trump has appealed to the Supreme Court in a final bid to block his presidential records from being delivered to the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol by his supporters.
In a massive 195-page filing laying out his case, Trump petitioned the high court for a writ of certiorari on Thursday, asking it to consider "whether the Committee’s records request violates the Constitution or laws of the United States entitling President Trump to a preliminary injunction prohibiting production of the records to the Committee."
In a separate filing on Thursday, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), who chairs the select committee, asked the high court for an expediting ruling, arguing that “delay would inflict a serious injury on the Select Committee and the public."
For months, Trump has been fighting the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the US Capitol through the courts, attempting to stop the Democrat-run probe from getting ahold of his files kept in the US National Archives by arguing they're protected by executive privilege. Most recently, a District of Columbia federal court struck down his latest motion earlier this month.
However, it's not just Trump's records the committee wants: dozens of Trump affiliates and former staffers have also been subpoenaed for their testimony and various records, including phone records. Many have refused to cooperate and been held in contempt of Congress, including right-wing ideologue and former chief adviser to Trump, Steve Bannon, and his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
Earlier this week, Alex Jones, host of the website InfoWars, and Michael Flynn, a retired US Army general who briefly served as Trump's national security adviser before later becoming a cheerleader for the QAnon conspiracy theory, both filed their own lawsuits, attempting to dodge the committee's subpoenas of their phone records.
The committee is investigating the circumstances surrounding the events of January 6, 2021, when a large "Stop the Steal" rally hosted by Trump outside the White House preceded the storming of the US Capitol Building by thousands of Trump supporters, many of whom came immediately from the rally. The committee has looked at communications as the events unfolded that day, as well as in the days leading up to it, which included other smaller pro-Trump rallies and a so-called "war room" meeting held at a luxury hotel near the White House.
The rioters were attempting to void the results of the election, which Congress was certifying at the time of the attack in a special joint session. While Trump lost the election to now-US President Joe Biden, he has refused to admit the loss, claiming the Democrats committed fraud and "stole" the election from him. However, the rioters failed in their goal, as while they temporarily dispersed Congress, they failed to lay hands on the election results, and police and National Guardsmen soon cleared them from the building.
Five people died in the riot, including a US Capitol Police (USCP) officer and a female rioter shot by an officer outside the House chamber while attempting to break through the door.
Wider questions remain about why so few defensive precautions were taken prior to the protest, including why Pentagon brass were so slow to respond to urgent pleas for support by Capitol Police. The extent to which the riot was coordinated with or by Republican lawmakers and numerous right-wing elements, including militia members and neo-Nazi parties, is also not yet fully known, but the committee has also subpoenaed the leaders of right-wing groups that participated, including the Proud Boys gang and Oath Keepers militia.
