Trump Jan. 6 documents blocked, chief of staff could face contempt

Just a day before the National Archives could have started turning over White House documents related to January’s Capitol riots to the House committee investigating Jan. 6, those documents have been blocked. An administrative injunction issued Thursday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit effectively bars the release of the documents until the end of the month.

The appeals court set oral arguments in the case for Nov. 30. They will take place before three judges nominated by Democratic presidents. Patricia Millett and Robert Wilkins were nominated by former President Barack Obama, and Ketanji Brown Jackson was appointed by President Joe Biden. Whichever side loses in appeals court is likely to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The injunction on the blocked documents came two days after U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected a request from lawyers of former President Donald Trump to prevent the documents from being released. She again denied an emergency motion by Trump on Wednesday.

“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 Jan. 6, and to consider legislation to prevent such events from ever occurring again,” Judge Chutkan wrote in her Tuesday decision.

After her decision, it appears Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich predicted Thursday’s developments regarding the blocked documents.

“The battle to defend executive privilege for presidents past, present and future — from its outset — was destined to be decided by the appellate courts,” Budowich tweeted late Tuesday. “President Trump remains committed to defending the Constitution and the Office of the Presidency, and will be seeing this process through.”

The fight between Biden and Trump regarding the blocked documents is over the issue of executive privilege. The concept also played a role in the House voting to hold former Trump adviser Steve Bannon in contempt, and could lead to former chief of staff Mark Meadows being held in contempt.

On Thursday, the White House notified a lawyer for Meadows that Biden would waive any executive privilege that would prevent Meadows from cooperating with the committee. This is according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press.

Meadows was a no-show for a scheduled deposition Friday. Ahead of the meeting the committee chair, Democrat Bennie Thompson sent a letter to Meadow’s attorney saying “Simply put, there is no valid legal basis for Mr. Meadows’s continued resistance to the Select Committee’s subpoena.”

“Mr. Meadows remains under the instructions of former President Trump to respect longstanding principles of executive privilege,” Meadows’ lawyer George Terwilliger said in a statement response to the White House letter, according to CBS News reporter Ellis Kim. “It now appears the courts will have to resolve this conflict.”