Trump asks court to block handing over his files

Washington (CNN) – Former President Donald Trump appealed to the Supreme Court on Thursday to block the handing over of documents from the White House to the House committee investigating the January 6 riots on Capitol Hill, ramping up his efforts to keep a secret 700-page record.

In the Documents It was brought to the Supreme Court, and Trump asked the justices to conduct a full review of the case, and asked them while they considered their position, to suspend a lower court’s decision to allow their records to be released.

“The limited interest the commission may have in obtaining the required records promptly pales in comparison to President Trump’s interest in obtaining judicial review before irreparable harm is done,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in the court filings.

The dispute over the documents, which are currently in the hands of the National Archives, stems from a lawsuit that Trump brought against the archive and the committee to prevent the records from being released. It consisted of hundreds of documents, including activity logs, schedules, speech notes, and three pages of handwritten notes from Mark Meadows, Trump’s then chief of staff.

Trump argues in the case that these documents should be kept secret by virtue of the former president’s assertions about executive privilege, though lower courts have so far rejected his arguments. Thursday’s presentation to the Supreme Court marked an escalation of the dispute.

President Joe Biden decided that withholding documents on the grounds of executive privilege was not in the best interests of the United States. In a letter to the Archives in October, White House counsel Dana A. Remus said the president refused to impose the concession because Congress has “an urgent need, in the service of its legislative functions, to understand the circumstances which gave rise to these appalling events…”

The House committee, tasked with investigating the attack on the US Capitol to make recommendations to prevent such assaults in the future, is seeking documents exploring Trump’s role in trying to overturn the election, including his appearance at a rally on January 6, when he directed his followers to go to the Capitol , as lawmakers were preparing to ratify the election results, and “fight” for their boycott.

Trump’s lawyers argue that the commission has overstepped its authority and that its requests for documents are too broad and include sensitive records and an unrelated lien for a valid legislative purpose.

They say the requests violate the separation of powers as well as the Presidential Records Act, and that Biden’s decision not to enforce the franchise should not override Trump’s wishes to remove them from the committee. On the other hand, they argue that the documents should be reviewed by courts to determine whether Trump’s allegations are true.