(Trends Wide) — The power that Donald Trump has as former president will be put to the test this Thursday when a federal judge hears arguments about whether she can keep secret documents produced during her administration about her attempt to annul the 2020 elections.
Donald Trump has asked the Washington District Court to block the National Archives from delivering more than 700 pages of documents to the select House committee investigating the Jan.6 insurrection on Capitol Hill. He has argued that the House of Representatives investigation is illegitimate, and that his role as former president should give him control over the review and decision on access to records.
This hearing can be a turning point in a potentially historic legal fight over the authority of a former president, the investigative power of the House of Representatives, and the scope of executive privilege.
In the short term, the case may also have huge implications for the bipartisan House investigation, which is pushing for records and witnesses before the mid-term elections are held next year. Without access to the documents, the House of Representatives could be hampered in its investigation.
The former president of the United States, Donald Trump.
One of the most important tasks in the history of Congress
In court, the House of Representatives has called its investigation one of the most important tasks in its history. “In 2021, for the first time since the Civil War, the nation did not experience a peaceful handover of power,” attorneys for the lower house of Congress wrote over the weekend.
“A peaceful handover of power from one president to another is crucial to the continuation of our democratic government. It is difficult to imagine a more critical issue for the Congressional investigation, and Mr. Trump’s arguments cannot overcome that pressing legislative need.”
Judge Tanya Chutkan could fail as soon as this Thursday, even from the bench during the hearing. Any result is likely to be appealed, but the clock will be ticking for both the House of Representatives and Trump.
The National Archives, a part of the executive branch that inherited Trump’s presidential records after he left office, has already decided that the House of Representatives should have access to the records of Trump’s term as president. The agency plans to deliver them starting next week, November 12, unless Chutkan or an appeals court orders otherwise.
Donald Trump’s response
Donald Trump has turned to the judicial system on several occasions in recent years to curb or block Congressional access to records that he believes should remain private. The courts are still resolving many of those disputes, such as cases involving your personal accounting firm’s work, your IRS tax returns, and your business bank records.
An image of the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
While he was president, he was able to hold off House subpoenas to his closest advisers using broad claims of privilege and the backing of the Justice Department. And even before Trump’s presidency, trials of executive privilege in collecting documents have dragged on for years.
But the questions about executive privilege raised by Donald Trump now put the court in a new position when weighing the needs of the House of Representatives against its requests for privacy for his time in office.
“Allowing the expansive request here would harm future presidents and their close aides by allowing invasive Congressional fishing expeditions that will certainly chill candid advice and damage the institution of the presidency,” Trump’s attorneys wrote to the court this week.
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A treasure trove of Donald Trump notes, memos and drafts
The records that Trump wants to keep secret at this time appear to be a trove of notes from his top aides relating to his insistence that the election was stolen and his reaction to the attacks by his supporters on the US Capitol on January 6. . They include parts of the files of Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, from whom the commission has been seeking testimony, and other key figures such as press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. In recent weeks, Meadows has engaged with the House of Representatives but has not come forward to speak, an apparent deadlock that could change depending on the outcome of Trump’s court case.
The National Archives have given a taste of what Trump is trying to protect in a list of handwritten memos, draft public statements, logs of calls to Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, White House visitor logs and more. from the files of key White House officials.
Such records, if obtained by the House of Representatives, could respond to some of the most closely guarded events of what happened minute by minute between Trump and other high-level officials, including people around him who were observing the siege. and the officials who were attacked.
The administration of President Joe Biden has decided that it will not enforce executive privilege over the records that the National Archives have reviewed so far, citing the extraordinary status of the attack on Congress.
The National Archives continues to work on the Trump documents and set dates for their submission to Congress.
“President Biden’s sober determination that the public interest requires disclosure is manifestly reasonable, and it is his right to make it,” attorneys for the Biden administration have written in court.
What’s in the documents?
Trump is trying to keep more than 700 pages of the files of his closest advisers secret until Jan. 6, according to an affidavit by B. John Laster of the National Archives.
Those records include working documents for then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, the press secretary and a White House attorney who had notes and memos about Trump’s efforts to undermine the election.
In the Meadows documents alone, there are three handwritten notes on the events of January 6 and two pages listing briefings and phone calls about Electoral College certification, the archivist said.
Laster’s summary of the documents represents a glimpse into a mountain of papers that would reveal what happened inside the White House when Trump supporters gathered in Washington and then stormed the United States Capitol on January 6.
Trump also intends to keep 30 pages of his daily schedule, White House visit logs and call logs secret, Laster wrote. Call logs, schedules and checklists document “calls to the president and vice president, all specifically for or around January 6, 2021,” Laster said.
The records Trump wants to keep secret also include draft speeches, a draft proclamation honoring two police officers who died in the siege, and memos and other documents about alleged voter fraud and efforts to overturn Trump’s defeat in the election. .
