A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked the National Archives from releasing Donald Trump administration records to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol ahead of a Friday deadline, CNN reported Thursday afternoon.
According to the report, a three-judge panel for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals “granted former President Donald Trump’s request to pause the release of key White House records from his presidency to the Jan 6 Panel as he appeals a lower court’s decision that he can’t claim executive privilege to keep them secret.”
“The purpose of this administrative injunction is to protect the court’s jurisdiction to address [Trump’s] claims of executive privilege and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits,” the panel said in a brief order, according to CNN.
The three-judge panel scheduled oral arguments for Nov. 30, the report says.
The ruling comes after a frantic week of court filings, with Trump’s lawyers scrambling to head off the Friday deadline after a federal judge ruled Tuesday the documents must be released.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said in her decision that Trump had little authority as a former president to interfere with the exchange between the executive and legislative branches.
Trump’s next filing with the appeals court is due on Tuesday.
