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This article was updated at 9:40 p.m. on December 23

Former President Donald Trump came to the Supreme Court on Thursday and asked the judge to block the release of the White House records to the Congressional Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The committee is seeking documents that show Trump’s communications and activities prior to the riots.

Trump argued that as a former president, he has the right to keep documents confidential, but two lower courts rejected this argument. Trump now hopes to find a more acceptable audience in the Supreme Court, and on Thursday he urged the judge to intervene. Trump argues that the stakes are high, and his case will determine whether the president can “rely on executive privileges, separation of powers, and the President’s Records Act to protect the president’s confidential deliberations so as not to prematurely submit them to political opponents.”

The legal dispute now submitted to the court began in August when the special committee investigating the attack on the Capitol on January 6 requested the National Archives to surrender White House documents related to the activities on January 6, such as the Oval Rally, as well as related transcripts. General’s schedule, phone records, and documentation of efforts to question the results of the 2020 election.

Trump argued that nearly 800 pages of documents that the American archivist intends to hand over are protected by administrative privileges, which enables the president to keep confidential documents reflecting the president’s decisions and deliberations. However, President Joe Biden told the archivist that these documents should be released to the committee and explained that he “determined that the proposition of administrative privilege is not in the best interest of the United States, and therefore for any documents.”

“The Constitution’s protection of administrative privileges should not be used to shield Congress or the public,” Biden reasoned, “reflecting clear and obvious information about efforts to subvert the Constitution itself.”

Trump went to the federal court in Washington, DC on October 18 to try to prevent archivists from disclosing these documents. The district court rejected Trump’s preliminary injunction motion.

Trump then went to the U.S. District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, which agreed to temporarily block the publication of these records until it can rule on Trump’s appeal.in a Judge Patricia Millett’s 65-page opinion, A team of three judges upheld the district court’s ruling, clearing the way for archivists to release documents.

Millett described the January 6 incident as “the most significant attack on the Capitol since the War of 1812,” and he emphasized that the executive branch holds executive privileges for the benefit of the country rather than the president. She pointed out that it protects “the public interest of frank and confidential deliberations within the executive branch.” In addition, she added that privileges are not absolute: the current president can give up. In this case, she went on to say that both Biden and Congress “agreed that there are unique legislative requirements for these documents, and that they are directly related to the committee’s investigation of the attack” Congress. She concluded that Trump only provided a “bundle of objections,” which was not enough for the court to veto Biden’s decision to waive his executive privileges.

The appellate court agreed to shelve its ruling for 14 days to give Trump time to come to the Supreme Court, which he did on Thursday.exist He requested a review of the DC Circuit Court’s decisionTrump complained that the lower courts “refused to use objective tests to provide reliable and politically neutral standards to determine disputes regarding access to the secret records of the former president.” Instead, he argued that the lower court’s decision “supports the violation of the president’s secrets because of the current president. And the first house of Congress supports the involuntary waiver of the former president’s constitutional and statutory protection rights.” In addition, Trump added that this dispute is “an important issue that may recur in an increasingly partisan political climate. ”

Trump suggested that his case can be briefed and debated during the 2021-22 term of the court, which will enable the court’s decision to resolve not only the current dispute over the first set of documents that the archivist intends to transfer, but also Any future disputes. As the commission’s investigation continues, it may appear. To this end, Trump asked the judge to shelve the decision of the DC Circuit Court, which allowed the shelving of the disclosure of the first set of documents and prevented the archivist from surrendering any other potentially privileged material until the dispute is resolved.

Former president’s Apply for the decision to shelve the DC circuit Initially handled by Chief Justice John Roberts (John Roberts), he was responsible for handling urgent appeals from the DC Circuit Court. Roberts can act on the request alone, or more likely to submit it to the full court.

A few hours after Trump’s request, the House committee and archivist Ask the justices to expedite their consideration of Trump’s petition for reviewUnder normal circumstances, the abstract of the opposition petition will expire on January 24. But the committee and archivists stated that they plan to submit a summary of their opposition to review and the decision to suspend the DC Circuit Court on December 30, and they asked the judges to consider the case in a private meeting on January 14. They told the court that Trump also agreed to the timetable they proposed.

This article is Originally published in Howe on the Court.