US Court Halts Release of Trump’s Capitol Attack Records.
Thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol 10 months ago.
Washington: A United States court on Thursday granted former President Donald Trump’s request to temporarily halt the release of White House documents that could implicate him in the Jan.6 attack on Capitol Hill.
The documents were requested by the House Select Committee investigating the riot, and a United States district judge ordered their release on Tuesday.
However, the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit said Thursday that it had granted what it called an administrative order and arguments scheduled for November 30.
The three-judge panel specified that the measure “should not be interpreted in any way as a decision on the merits” of the case.
On January 6, hundreds of violent Trump supporters invaded Congress and delayed a joint session to confirm that Joe Biden had won the November 2020 election and would become president.
Biden has already approved the release of the records, which are housed in the National Archives. The House panel was due to receive its first batch on Friday.
Overall, the House has requested more than 770 pages of documents, including records of Trump’s top aides and memos from his press secretary.
Among the records are documents from Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, his former senior adviser Stephen Miller and his former deputy attorney Patrick Philbin.
Trump also hoped to block the publication of the White House Journal, a record of his activities, travel, briefings, and phone calls.
Another trove of documents Trump doesn’t want Congress to see includes memoranda for his former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, a handwritten note on the events of January 6, and a draft of the text of his speech at the “Save America” rally. Delivered just before the attack, Trump in that speech urged his followers to “fight like hell” in defense of his false claim that his election was stolen.
Earlier this week, the House committee issued subpoenas to Trump’s top aides who allegedly conspired to reverse his defeat in a “war room” at a luxury hotel in Washington, as well as some of his top lieutenants. , including McEnany and Miller.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by OkeyNews staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)