Trump asks Supreme Court to block publication of Capitol Invasion documents

(Archive) Supporters of Donald Trump before Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021 – AFP / ARCHIVE

Former US President Donald Trump on Thursday (23) asked the US Supreme Court to block the delivery of documents to the legislative committee investigating the violent invasion of Congress carried out by his supporters on January 6, in which five people were killed.

Trump asked the highest court to overturn a decision this month by a federal appeals court that denied his request to keep White House records secret.

On December 9, the appeals court’s decision paved the way for hundreds of pages of documents to be handed over to the parliamentary committee investigating the Capitol invasion.

However, Trump gave 14 days to appeal to the Supreme Court, which the former president has now done, on the final day. The billionaire wants to keep these files private, which include lists of people who visited him or spoke to him on the phone that day.

The House Special Committee is tasked with evaluating the role of Trump and his collaborators in the invasion of the Capitol by thousands of the former president’s supporters in an effort to avoid endorsement of the victory of his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, in the presidential election.

The former president, who denies any responsibility for the invasion, says the investigation is a “political maneuver” and refuses to cooperate. He went to court, taking advantage of the executive branch’s privilege to keep his communications secret even if he was cited by Congress, and “even after the expiration of his term.”

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Donald Trump announced this week that he will hold a press conference in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, on January 6, commemorating the attack on the Capitol Building, and reiterated, without foundation, that the November 2020 election had been stolen. .

The former president took the opportunity to criticize the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry, accusing it of “extreme bias”, and reiterated that the “rigged 2020 presidential election” should be investigated.

The House committee is racing against the clock as it wants to publish, at all costs, the results of the investigations before the midterm legislative elections scheduled for November 2022, in which Republicans can retake control of the House and bury the investigation. .

Donald Trump has urged people around him not to cooperate with investigations, and ongoing legal battles over whether or not to testify will delay the whole process.

Even after his defeat in his re-election bid, the former president remains very influential in American politics, especially among Republican voters, and does not rule out a run for the 2024 presidential election.

In an interview broadcast Wednesday evening on ABC, President Joe Biden said that the chances of running for a second term increase if Trump is a candidate.

“Why should I not oppose Donald Trump if he is a candidate? He said that would increase my chances of applying.