Donald Trump is fighting in court to keep documents on the attack on Congress under wraps. Now the ex-US President has suffered a clear defeat in the Supreme Court.
Former US President Donald Trump has suffered a defeat in the Supreme Court in a dispute over the release of documents relating to the storming of the Capitol.
the supreme court on Wednesday evening (local time), with a majority of eight of the nine judges, rejected an emergency request by Trump to block the documents stored in the National Archives from being handed over to a parliamentary committee of inquiry.
The committee is investigating the storming of the US Congress a year ago. After an inciting speech by Trump, his supporters stormed the seat of the US Congress in Washington on January 6, 2021 to prevent confirmation of Biden’s election victory. The attack killed five people and injured dozens. The attack on the heart of US democracy shook the country.
More than 700 pages of information released
Ex-President Trump had invoked the so-called executive privilege in court. This is the President’s prerogative to keep certain information secret. However, a federal court had ordered the release of the documents to the House Committee. The court had said executive privilege was there to protect the government, not a person who was no longer president. The privilege does not exist “for all time,” it said in November.
President Joe Biden has consented to the release of the information by the National Archives to the Committee. The Supreme Court’s decision is now expected to pave the way for the release of documents from Trump’s time in the White House: more than 700 pages of information, including handwritten notes by former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows. The panel plans to complete its investigation before the November congressional election.