Trump, Congress Lawyers Spar at Appeals Court Hearing for Jan. 6 Docs

• An appeals court panel grilled Trump’s lawyers over his privilege claims on Jan. 6 documents.
• All three judges expressed deep skepticism of Trump’s effort to override Biden’s decision to turn over the documents.
• A federal judge previously rejected Trump’s claim, writing, “Presidents are not kings.”

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump and the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection sparred in court Tuesday over issues of executive privilege hanging over the committee’s probe.

The case centers on Trump’s efforts to block the Biden administration from turning over documents the committee says are crucial to its examination of Trump’s actions immediately before, during, and after the deadly Capitol riot. Trump asserted executive privilege over the documents, but the Biden White House declined to do the same and authorized the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to turn over the materials to Congress.

Trump filed a lawsuit in response, but a federal judge earlier this month rejected Trump’s privilege claims, saying that while the former president has the right to assert privilege, President Joe Biden is not required to honor it.

On Tuesday, Trump’s defense lawyer Justin Clark argued before a three-judge appeals court panel in Washington, DC, that the case centers on what happens when Congress requests a document that could fall under executive privilege. 

But appeals court judge Patricia Millett, an Obama appointee, pushed back on that characterization, saying that the issue wasn’t whether the content of the documents is covered by executive privilege, but what happens when an incumbent president declines to assert privilege and a former president seeks to overturn that decision.

“So what do we do with this dispute between a current and a former president?” Millett said.