The Supreme Court will allow the transfer of records from the Trump White House to the January 6 committee probing the Capitol riot.
Former President Trump had invoked executive privilege to prevent the panel from obtaining a stock of over 700 documents, but the high court denied this plea Wednesday evening. The committee will consult the records, probably in an effort to ascertain whether Trump or members of the White House engaged in any coordination or conspiring before protestors stormed the Capitol building to interfere with the certification of the election results for Joe Biden.
The documents the committee wants to review include activity logs, schedules, speech notes, and three pages of handwritten notes from former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who was subpoenaed in September to be questioned on his role in the events of that day.
While eight justices did not reveal their votes, Justice Clarence Thomas publicly dissented that he would have granted Trump’s appeal to stop the handover.
Trump’s attorneys have argued that the former president has executive privilege to keep the records secret.
“The disagreement between an incumbent President and his predecessor from a rival political party is both novel and highlights the importance of executive privilege and the ability of Presidents and their advisers to reliably make and receive full and frank advice, without concern that communications will be publicly released to meet a political objective,” Trump’s lawyer, Jesse R. Binnall told the justices.
He said that the committee requested the documents for a political purpose rather than a legitimate fact-finding mission. “Congress may not rifle through the confidential presidential papers of a former President to meet political objections,” Binnall added.
President Biden disagreed that his administration should honor Trump’s claim of executive privilege, declaring that the country deserved answers about what happened on January 6. Biden said that such a plea was “not justified.”
The case was escalated to the Supreme Court after a federal appeals court ruled against Trump, arguing that he “has provided no basis for this court to override President Biden’s judgment and the agreement and accommodations worked out between the Political Branches over these documents.”