United States District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected a request from lawyers for former President Donald Trump Tuesday. The lawyers had sought to block the House Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riots from receiving White House documents.
“The public interest lies in permitting — not enjoining — the combined will of the legislative and executive branches to study the events that led to and occurred on Jan. 6, and to consider legislation to prevent such events from ever occurring again,” Judge Chutkan wrote in her decision.
The judge denying the Trump lawyers’ request came after the former President claimed executive privilege over the documents. But last month, President Joe Biden said he will not invoke executive privilege to prevent the committee from accessing the documents.
“At bottom, this is a dispute between a former and incumbent President,” Chutkan wrote. “And the Supreme Court has already made clear that in such circumstances, the incumbent’s view is accorded greater weight.”
The National Archives could turn over the White House records as soon as Friday. According to an earlier court filing from the archives, the records include call logs, drafts of remarks and speeches and handwritten notes from Trump’s then-chief of staff, Mark Meadows. The National Archives has said there are also copies of talking points from then-press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and “a draft Executive Order on the topic of election integrity”.
The Friday timeline all depends on what happens next in the legal process.
“The battle to defend executive privilege for presidents past, present and future — from its outset — was destined to be decided by the appellate courts,” Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich tweeted late Tuesday. “President Trump remains committed to defending the Constitution and the Office of the Presidency, and will be seeing this process through.”
Meanwhile, Prince Harry revealed Wednesday he warned Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey the day before the Capitol riots. Harry’s comments came as he sharply attacked the failure of social media companies to challenge hate online during a panel on misinformation in California.
“Jack and I were emailing each other prior to Jan. 6 where I warned him that his platform was allowing a coup to be staged,” Harry said at the RE:WIRED tech forum. “That email was sent the day before and then it happened and I haven’t heard from him since.”