US Supreme Court clears way for House Jan 6 committee to get Trump White House records

WASHINGTON - The US Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the House committee investigating the Jan 6 Capitol riot can access presidential records related to the deadly attack, dealing a blow to former President Donald Trump's effort to withhold the documents.

The Jan 6 committee has been seeking over 700 pages worth of documents as it tries to find out what role Trump played during the riot. The former president disputed the transfer of the files on the grounds that they are under protection by his executive privilege.

President Joe Biden has refused to grant his predecessor the executive privilege, and subsequent lawsuits filed by Trump's legal team have failed in the federal appeals court in Washington, DC.

In an unsigned opinion, the Supreme Court acknowledged there are "serious and substantial concerns" over whether a former president can win a court ruling to prevent the disclosure of certain records from his time in the White House in such a situation.

Justice Clarence Thomas was alone in noting that he would have granted Trump's request not to release the records, which included presidential diaries, visitor logs, speech drafts and handwritten notes detailing what happened inside the former president's inner circle on Jan 6, 2021.

The high court's ruling cleared the legal impediment to transferring the records from the National Archives to House investigators.