A U.S. appeals court on Thursday rejected a request by former President Donald Trump to withhold records from the House of Representatives Select Committee probing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, saying he had provided “no basis” for his request.
NBC News speculated that his lawyers will most likely file an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court in an effort to block the document release.
Lawyers for the House said the committee needs the records “to complete a thorough investigation into how the actions of the former president, his advisers, and other government officials may have contributed to the attack on Congress to impede the peaceful transfer of presidential power.”
The House panel is probing the circumstances of the breach and what led up to it. Critics of the Trump White House have insisted the ex-president and his allies incited the riot with claims the presidential election had been stolen via fraud. Rioters broke into the Capitol as part of an effort to prevent Congress from certifying the election results that awarded the presidency to Joe Biden.
Trump, advisers including Steve Bannon, and the president’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, have all claimed executive privilege as justification with noncompliance. Bannon has been charged with contempt for not appearing before the panel, and the same fate is expected, perhaps early next week, with Meadows.
He has told The Patriot Depot it’s his belief the committee is abusing its subpoena authority.
“We got a subpoena that was so broad in scope,” Meadows said this week, “that every single … phone record … geolocation, you name it; the broad scope of the subpoena was just breathtaking. I can tell you when I was in Congress, we used subpoenas … [in a] very limited and very focused basis. Obviously, the Jan. 6 committee has taken a very different approach. And candidly, I think it’s an abuse of power.”
The Patriot Depot’s Jeff Rubin contributed to this report.
