Shivani Gadhavi –
Published On: December 10, 2021 at 18:10 IST
A United States Federal Appeals Court on December 9th, 2021 rejected the plea of Former President of United States Donald Trump, to keep the documents of the January 6th, 2021 Capitol Riots a secret.
The Federal Appeals Court agreed with the decision of a lower court to reject Donald Trump’s plea to prevent the current United States Government from using the Capitol Riots documents against Trump and his supporters in an investigation for the aforementioned riots.
In the House of Representatives, a select committee is currently performing an investigation on the facts and events surrounding the January 6th, 2021 Capitol Riots, when a huge mob of Trump’s supporters entered the capitol to disrupt confirmation of, current President Joe Biden’s election win. The riots caused the death of five people and injured many.
Donald Trump sought to use his privilege as a former President to prevent the usage of the documents and phone records pertaining to the riots, but the Court did not allow him to block the release of the aforementioned documents.
The Federal Appeals Court stated, “The right of a former president certainly enjoys no greater weight than that of the incumbent, in this case, President Biden, as the head of the Executive Branch, has specifically found that Congress has demonstrated a compelling need for these very documents and that disclosure is in the best interests of the nation.”
The judgment of the Federal Appeals Court did not permit the immediate release of the documents and phone records but allowed the lawyers of Donald Trump to take their plea to the Supreme Court in a period of two weeks.