Trump launches final effort to prevent committee Jan. 6 from taking White House records on Friday

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Lawyers for former President Donald Trump on Thursday asked the federal appeals court to temporarily block the National Archives from returning its White House records to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

The committee is set to receive the first batch of documents, which lawmakers say are key to their investigation, on Friday. In papers filed in the appeals court on Thursday, Trump’s lawyers asked the court to temporarily defer turnover and “maintain the status quo” while they proceed with an expedited appeal.

Trump tried to claim executive privilege over the documents, and insisted that the records should be kept secret “indefinitely.”

President Joe Biden disagreed, and said the National Archives should release the records.

White House attorney Dana Remus told the National Archives in a letter obtained by NBC News that the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was “the most serious attack on Federal government operations since the Civil War,” and Trump’s efforts to keep Congress in the dark about what happened “are not in the best interest of the United States.”

“Accordingly, President Biden does not endorse the assertion of the former President’s privilege,” Remus wrote.

Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied a similar request from Trump’s team to “maintain the status quo” earlier this week, noting that “the status quo in this case” is National Archives will reveal the documents in Nov. 12 “not in any intervening court order.”

His decision was one of a trio he released this past week that refused Trump’s request to keep his records secret.

“Below, this is a dispute between a former and incumbent President. And the Supreme Court has already clarified that in such instances, the incumbent’s view is given greater weight,” he wrote in a separate 39- ruling page.

“The plaintiff does not acknowledge respect for the judgment of the current President. His position that he can override the express will of the executive branch appears to be based on the notion that his executive power ‘exists forever,’ ”he wrote.“ But Presidents are not kings, and the Plaintiff is not President. “

Trump also defended that some witnesses subpoenaed by the committee should not have answered questions also because of executive privilege. One of them, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, was the subject of a criminal referral to the Justice Department for refusing to cooperate with everyone.

In a statement Thursday, an attorney for former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows suggested that his client also challenge the committee’s requests.

“Contrary to decades of consistent two-party opinion from the Justice Department that senior aides cannot be compelled by Congress to give testimony, this is the first President without any effort to protect the president’s communications from being subject to compulsory testimony, “attorney George Terwilliger said. Meadows remains under former President Trump’s instructions to respect the long -standing principle of executive privilege. It now appears that the courts need to resolve this conflict. “

Dareh Gregorian is a political reporter for NBC News.

Daniel Barnes reports for NBC News, which is based in Washington.

Ken Dilanian contributed.

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