Appeals court temporarily blocks release of Trump’s records for January 6 probe

A US federal appeals court on Thursday granted a request from former president Donald Trump to temporarily block the release of White House records sought by a US House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riots.

The administrative injunction issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit effectively bars until the end of this month the release of records that were to be turned over Friday. The appeals court set oral arguments in the case for November 30, according to Associated Press inputs.

The delay gives the court time to weigh arguments in a pivotal legal battle between former President Donald Trump, whose supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, and President Joe Biden and Congress, who have demanded a full inquiry into the violence.

It prevents a House committee from scrutinising records that members believe might shed light on the events leading up to the insurgency and Trump’s attempts to delegitimize a lost election.

Also Read | Federal judge refuses Donald Trump’s request to block Jan 6 records

In their emergency filing to the appeals court, Trump’s lawyers wrote that without a stay, Trump 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.”

According to the National Archives, which holds the documents, the aforementioned data includes call logs, handwritten notes and a draft executive order on “election integrity.”

Earlier, on the documents, Biden waived executive privilege. Trump then took the case to court, claiming that as a former president, he still had the right to exercise executive privilege over the documents and that disclosing them would jeopardise the presidency’s future.

Meanwhile, arguments on November 30 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.

With inputs from the Associated Press