WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Monday shot down a request from former President Donald Trump to prevent the National Archives from releasing documents requested by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump's lawsuit last month to block the records is still ongoing. Trump filed an emergency motion late Monday asking U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan to grant a stay in the case pending an appeal or an administrative injunction. Chutkan quickly denied the request Tuesday, saying the move was "premature."
Chutkan said that she hasn't issued a ruling in the case yet and that she would consider a motion for a stay only after she reaches a final judgment. During oral arguments this month, she seemed skeptical of Trump's request.
In a 14-page motion filed on Trump's behalf, Trump counsel Jesse Binnall ide National Archives and Records Administration is expected to produce records to the Jan. 6 committee on Friday. Binnall argued that that would be "before judicial review is complete and before President Trump has had the opportunity to be fully and fairly heard."
Trump sued the National Archives and the House committee last month, arguing that lawmakers' subpoena for documents was invalid because the committee has no power of investigation and because Trump has asserted executive privilege over the records.
The White House, however, rejected Trump's attempt to assert executive privilege. White House counsel Dana Remus has said the documents "shed light on events within the White House on and about January 6 and bear on the Select Committee's need to understand the facts underlying the most serious attack on the operations of the Federal government since the Civil War."
In the emergency request Monday, Binnall said the case "should be decided after thorough but expeditious consideration pursuant to America's judicial review process, both before this Court and on appeal, not by a race against the clock."
He also said that if the judge refused to grant a preliminary injunction, Trump would "promptly appeal."
Earlier Monday, the committee issued subpoenas to six former Trump administration or campaign aides who supported Trump's "big lie" that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
