Judge again rejects Trump’s effort to delay Jan. 6 committee’s bid for his White House records
The decision sharply rejected the former president’s attempt to assert executive privilege over the documents.
For the third time in two days, a federal judge has shot down former president Donald Trump’s effort to block January 6 investigators from accessing his White House records. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan said in a ruling late Wednesday that she would refuse to stay her own decision—just one day earlier—denying Trump’s request for an injunction that would block the House’s January 6 select committee from gaining access to some of his White House papers. Chutkan, an appointee of President Barack Obama, sharply rejected Trump’s attempt to assert executive privilege over the documents, contending that the decision by the sitting president, Joe Biden, to release them carried greater weight under existing legal precedents.
In her latest decision, the judge said her earlier rationale dictated that she should turn down Trump’s request for a temporary order preventing disclosure of the records pending further legal action. “This court will not effectively ignore its own reasoning in denying injunctive relief in the first place to grant injunctive relief now,” Chutkan wrote. The National Archives, which houses Trump’s records, intends to provide a small initial tranche to congressional investigators on Friday afternoon.
I have my doubts that any court is going to agree with Trump's argument that, as ex-President, he has the power to overrule the current President on executive privilege.