A US judge rejected a request by former President Donald Trump for an immediate ruling on whether the January 6 committee investigating the January 6 storming on the US Capitol complex can access some of his White House records.
Tanya Chutkan, the judge in the District of Columbia, dismissed an argument–coming from Trump’s attorneys– about keeping a lid on records linked to telephone records, visitor logs and other White House documents, according to reports from Reuters.
Trump and his legal team presented the argument that the documents were covered by executive privilege, a mechanism to maintain the confidentiality of White House communications, Reuters reported.
The former President attempted to obstruct the block the United States National Archives — a federal body responsible for preserving executive documents– from complying with the requests made by the investigative committee of the House of Representatives.
Meanwhile, the January 6 committee has already sent out dozens of subpoenas to allies and advisors of the former President, demanding documents and testimonies to expand their investigation of the Capitol insurrection.
A total of 16 subpoenas have been issued so far this week by the committee, which is headed by Democrat lawmaker Bennie Thompson. The top names in this list were Jason Miller, Michael Flynn, Bill Stepien, Angela McCallum, John Eastman, Stephen Miller and Kayleigh McEnany.
Bennie Thompson, a lawmaker from Mississippi said in a statement, “The Select Committee wants to learn every detail of what went on in the White House on January 6th and in the days beforehand”, according to reports from Associated Press.
He added, “We need to know precisely what role the former president and his aides played in efforts to stop the counting of the electoral votes and if they were in touch with anyone outside the White House attempting to overturn the outcome of the election.”