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A US FEDERAL appeals court temporarily blocked the release of records sought by a US House committee investigating the 6 January insurrection as the court considers an emergency request by former president Donald Trump.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Thursday granted an administrative stay sought by Trump.
The stay is intended to give the court time to consider Trump’s arguments against release of the documents, which was otherwise scheduled for today without a court order.
The order effectively delays until the end of this month the release of records that were to be turned over today.
The appeals court set arguments in the case for 30 November.
The House is seeking Trump’s call logs, draft speeches and other documents related to 6 January.
Congress has sought the records to better understand the 6 January attack on the Capitol, in which rioters ransacked the building and forced into hiding politicians who were certifying Trump’s election loss to President Joe Biden.
Biden waived executive privilege on the documents.
Trump then went to court arguing that as a former president, he still had the right to exert privilege over the records and releasing them would damage the presidency in the future.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Tuesday rejected those arguments, noting in part: “Presidents are not kings, and plaintiff is not president”.
She again denied an emergency motion by Trump on Wednesday.
In their filing to the appeals court, Trump’s lawyers wrote that without a stay, the former president would “suffer irreparable harm through the effective denial of a constitutional and statutory right to be fully heard on a serious disagreement between the former and incumbent president”.
The 30 November arguments will take place before three judges nominated by Democratic presidents: Patricia Millett and Robert Wilkins, nominated by former president Barack Obama, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, an appointee of Biden.
The White House also notified a lawyer for Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, that Biden would waive any executive privilege that would prevent Meadows from cooperating with the committee.
The committee has subpoenaed Meadows and more than two dozen other people as part of its investigation.
His lawyer, George Terwilliger, issued a statement in response saying Meadows “remains under the instructions of former president Trump to respect longstanding principles of executive privilege”.
“It now appears the courts will have to resolve this conflict,” Terwilliger said.
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Tiny little fist on him, he’d have no bother getting the last Pringle out of the tube.
@Alan Biddulph: trump the Physo
I genuinely fail to understand why this man isn’t in prison
@Andy #FBPE: himself and more
@Andy #FBPE: money.
There is not one thing about this man to like, he is just a horrible horrible person all the way through, like his Tory equivalent across the way.
“Let me use my Strong Hand” Scary Movie 2
Trump is the greatest threat the US has had to face since the Cold War and yet nearly half of all Americans would vote for him. The US is a nation in decline. Their Trump problems are only beginning.
@Declan Doherty: He is already supposedly making a case for and feeling out the reaction to changing the 2 term limit…… He looks to his hero Putin and wants tbe same deal here…… America better be ready for their first dictator in 2024
The November appeal will be heard by 3 Democratic nominated judges. What a joke, but it won’t stop the 2nd coming. Trump 2024.
@Raymond Barry:
Why does that matter?
The law is the law.
It is blind and not open to interpretation
This partisan rhetoric is unnecessarily toxic and is generally used only to muddy the narrative
I’m he was cute enough not to say anything on tape in WH? this is all to stop him getting reelected
@MrJohne: unfortunately I don’t think it will make a huge difference, the true Trumpers will just see it as the establishment (the swamp) moving against him and that’s even more reason to vote for him.
Trump was right about killing a man on 5th Ave, the US system is so broken that it wouldn’t make a difference
@Colm O’ Shea: 100% agree with you. Check out Jordan Klepper’s interviews with MAGA/Trump supporters.
@MrJohne:
The attempts to stop their release, suggests not.
Trump 2024
@Nicole: Muppet 2021
@Michael Byrne: thank you for taking time out of your day to reply.
Ah, the circle-je rk that is the comment section of any Trump article.
@MrJohne if there is nothing bad in those records then why not release them and embarrass his detractors? Maybe he’ll do it after they finish “auditing” his taxes? Oops, sorry, wrong cover up!
have your say