President Donald Trump on Tuesday portrayed as an oppressive overreach the release of his Jan. 6 legal document by a federal judge who denied the executive order for an injunction. The White House pushed back on the first day of the battle over whether to release a memo that was partially redacted and doesn’t directly address its questions about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
The Washington Post’s Paul Waldman reported in the aftermath:
“The president thinks this shouldn’t happen, the courts don’t have the right to order the White House to release, and we’ll get the documents eventually,” White House spokesman Raj Shah said. “All you guys want to do is focus on one word in the footnote — this document will get released. And we’ll be able to lay it all out once that happens.”
That was seemingly confirmed on Tuesday, when Chief Judge Timothy M. Kelly ruled for the Trump administration’s request to not disclose the memo without a redaction as to what Trump had sought the document to disclose, according to court documents. “This order does not require the White House to do anything in particular, but simply prevents the disclosure of secret information which ought not to be made public,” Kelly wrote.
Trump has not responded to the appellate court’s decision.