WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has formally rejected President Donald Trump’s effort to block release of documents from his administration to the House Jan. 6 Select Committee, bringing a formal end to his executive privilege claims in connection with the records.
The decision follows the court’s Jan. 19 order that led the National Archives, which legally holds presidential records, to hand them over to the House of Representatives as the court weighed whether to accept Trump’s appeal.
The House committee has said it needs visitor logs, phone records, speech drafts and other written records to understand what role Trump may have played in instigating the violence that unfolded when his supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to prevent Congress from formally certifying Biden’s 2020 presidential election. The insurrection left lawmakers scrambling for safety and delayed for several hours the largely ceremonial, but constitutionally required, process.
