WASHINGTON: The release of Donald Trump administration data sought by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot has been temporarily halted by a US Federal Appeals Court, one day before some of the records are supposed to be transferred from the National Archives.
According to sources, a three-judge panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals imposed a temporary injunction, delaying the release of the documents to allow Trump to pursue his legal appeal. The panel said in a brief order that "the purpose of this administrative injunction is to protect the court's jurisdiction to address (Trump's) claims of executive privilege and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits," and that oral arguments in the case would be held on November 30.
The decision came one day before the Select Committee's deadline of Friday at 6 p.m. ET to acquire 46 materials, including White House call logs, visitor logs, speech draughts, and handwritten memos from Trump's former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.The National Archives, which holds those data, is slated to deliver about 700 pages of records to House investigators in the coming weeks.
Trump has been fighting the release of the records in court, threatening to use executive privilege. President Joe Biden has refused to intercede in the documents transfer, effectively stripping Trump of his presidential privilege in the probe. In October, the Trump team filed a lawsuit in District Court in DC against the Select Committee and the National Archives.
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