Jan. 20 (UPI) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected former President Donald Trump’s request to block the release of records from his White House to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riots.
The order clears the way for the release of more than 700 documents related to the attack, which saw supporters of Trump storm the Capitol as Congress worked to certify the 2020 presidential election results.
Justices did not provide reasoning for why Trump’s application was rejected and only Justice Clarence Thomas issued a public dissent.
On Tuesday, the Justice Department filed a letter with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia indicating the National Archive intended to release four pages of Trump White House records Wednesday to the committee.
“Because the former President [Trump] has not obtained such an injunction from any court, the release will proceed as scheduled absent an intervening court order,” Tuesday’s filing said.
The documents being sought by the committee were being withheld after a federal appeals court granted the former president a temporary injunction in November, blocking their release. The Supreme Court’s ruling Wednesday overrules that injunction.
The documents are held in three separate tranches, or groups. A fourth tranche was not covered by the November injunction, although two pages will be held back because of their similarity to pages in the first three tranches.
This comes after the committee on Tuesday subpoenaed Rudy Giuliani and three other allies of former President Donald Trump.
