What’s next in Trump’s scramble to stop the House from getting his White House


A three-judge panel from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, all appointed by Democrats, put the transfer on hold Thursday and set oral arguments for later this month.

The House select committee, which is probing the events leading up to and on January 6, has sent requests for information to a number of federal agencies, including the National Archives, the custodian of the Trump administration’s White House records.

The committee asked for “all documents and communications within the White House” on that day, including call logs, schedules and meetings with top officials and outside advisers, including Rudy Giuliani.

When can the House get the records?

The National Archives was set to send 46 documents over which Trump claims executive privilege on Friday. It has already handed over 90 non-contested records.

Friday’s handoff would have included White House call logs, video logs and schedules related to January 6 as well as three pages of handwritten notes from Trump’s then-chief of staff.

More than 700 documents would come later in the month and beyond.

What Trump wants

To keep records locked up with the National Archives.

He’s claiming executive privilege over certain documents and says the January 6 committee is a partisan exercise led by Democrats.

“The disagreement between an incumbent President and his predecessor from a rival political party 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 lawyers wrote.

What does the Biden White House say?

The Biden White House doesn’t want to get in the way and has said it won’t assert executive privilege to stop the document transfer.

Earlier this week, Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled that it’s basically the Biden White House’s choice to make. And Biden wants to hand over the docs.

“Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President,” Chutkan wrote on Tuesday night.

“The court holds that the public interest lies in permitting — not enjoining — the combined will of the legislative and executive branches to study the events that led to and occurred on January 6, and to consider legislation to prevent such events from ever occurring again,” Chutkan added in a 39-page opinion.

Presidential privilege “exists for the benefit of the Republic, not any individual,” she wrote.

What happened Thursday?

Trump filed an emergency motion just before noon, asking the DC Circuit Court of Appeals to block the handover while it considers his forthcoming appeal. A three-judge court panel granted the motion and set a briefing schedule and oral arguments for November 30.
In a two-page order, the three judges on the panel, all nominated by Democrats, wrote, “The purpose of this administrative injunction is to protect the court’s jurisdiction to address appellant’s claims of executive privilege and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits.”

Did you say all Democrats?

Yes. The judges who signed the order comprise two nominated by former President Barack Obama…



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