National Archives plans to hand over a small batch of documents from the Trump White House to the Jan. 6 committee at 6 p.m. ET Wednesday.
Pending Supreme Court action, the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals had ordered that three other batches of records over which Trump had claimed executive privilege not be released. Boynton noted that Trump’s attorney claimed on Tuesday that releasing these latest records would violate the order, but that the appeals court made clear last month that the stay only encompassed records from the first three tranches.
Trump was given an opportunity to seek a preliminary injunction in the appeals court on the fourth tranche of documents, but had only requested relief from the Supreme Court, Boynton said. In a response letter Wednesday, Trump's lawyer Jesse Binnall wrote that the archives have misinterpreted the existing injunction, which he said does apply to documents in the fourth tranche. If the archives releases the documents, Trump will seek to have it held in contempt of court, Binnall said.
"The government has the burden backwards: President Trump is under no obligation to seek another injunction to prevent an act squarely prohibited by an injunction already granted him. Instead, it is the government’s obligation to seek relief if it wishes to release said documents," he said.