Ambika Bhardwaj
Published On: December 31, 2021 at 14:52 IST
On Thursday, Congressional committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot requested the Supreme Court to reject former President Donald Trump’s proposal to protect his White House records from Investigators. After lower Courts agreed with the panel’s attempts, Trump asked the Supreme Court last week to prevent the National Archives from trying to turn over some of his White House data to the Jan. 6 committee.
Before deciding whether to hear the case, the Court will actively seek the opinion of the National Archives.
The House committee is looking into a trove of documents related to the events of January 6, which include communications between the White House and the Department of Justice along with events leading towards the threat on the Capitol.
This month, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that Trump had not demonstrated any specific harm that would result from the disclosure of the documents. Furthermore, the Appeals Court stated that while Trump retained limited powers to assert executive privilege, it was insufficient to address Biden’s determination that Congress has a valid need for such a record.
Trump’s Legal team has contended that the Court system were incorrect in finding that the House committee was seeking the documents for a legitimate legislative purpose. According to his Attorneys, the real purpose of the investigation isn’t just to gather facts, but also to collect information that would demean Trump.
Previously this week, the committee reached a deal with the Biden White House to postpone its proposal for just some Trump data, implying that Biden was unwilling to turn over documents to the panel.
The agreement mainly protects data that do not entail the incidents of Jan. 6, but were covered by the committee’s suggestion for records from the Trump White House about those events.