A US federal judge has rejected a request by former President Donald Trump to keep secret documents from his administration related to the invasion of the Capitol, which occurred on January 6 of this year.
The suit had been filed against a House of Representatives committee investigating the insurgency and against the National Archives, an agency that maintains historical US government documents.
According to information from the Associated Press, District Judge Tanya Chutkan justified in the ruling that there is “strong public interest” in the disclosure of the information and that the current president, Joe Biden, has the authority to waive the executive privilege to keep the documents secret, on the contrary than Trump claims.
Before the Republican filed the suit, the Democratic president had informed the National Archives that he would not claim executive privilege on documents related to the Jan. 6 of his predecessor’s term.
“Basically, this is a dispute between a former president and the current president. And the Supreme Court has already made it clear that, in such circumstances, the incumbent’s view carries greater weight,” wrote Chutkan, who argued that executive privilege does not “exist in perpetuity.” “Presidents are not kings and the applicant (Trump) is not the president,” she said.
According to the AP, the National Archives is expected to turn over the records to the House of Representatives committee later this week if Chutkan’s decision is not overturned — Trump’s lawyers reported they would appeal to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit .
The Capitol was raided on Jan. 6 by Trump supporters, alleging fraud in Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory. The riot left five deaths and injured dozens; hundreds of people have been arrested and are being prosecuted – some convictions are already being determined by the American justice system.
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