The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Thursday granted an administrative stay sought by former President Donald Trump that will block the release of the January 6 riot records.
The decision comes after Trump appealed a federal judge’s ruling for the National Archives to release the documents to a House committee investigating the riot.
Trump called the House panel’s request a ‘vexatious, illegal fishing expedition’ that was ‘untethered from any legitimate legislative purpose.’
Allowing the House to get access to his records would damage executive privilege for future presidents, Trump’s lawyers argued.
But Chutkan noted examples of past presidents declining to assert executive privilege and rejected what she said was Trump’s claim that executive privilege “exists in perpetuity.
