Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump holds a campaign rally at Ted Hendricks Stadium in Hialeah, Florida, U.S. November 8, 2023. REUTERS/Octavio Jones
Octavio Jones | Reuters
A federal judge on Monday denied a request by Donald Trump to issue subpoenas for records related to a select House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Trump was seeking the subpoenas as part of his defense to criminal charges related to his attempt to reverse his loss in the 2020 presidential election.
The Jan. 6, 2021, riot by Trump supporters began after weeks of false claims by the then-president that ballot fraud was the reason for Joe Biden‘s election victory.
Judge Tanya Chutkan, in her order denying the subpoenas, suggested that Trump’s lawyers were engaged in a “fishing expedition” with their request.
“The broad scope of the records that Defendant seeks, and his vague description of their potential relevance, resemble less ‘a good faith effort to obtain identified evidence’ than they do ‘a general ‘fishing expedition’ that attempts to use the [Rule 17(c) subpoena] as a discovery device,” the judge wrote.
Chutkan wrote that the attorneys failed to meet their burden to justify the subpoenas, which would have been issued to the head of the National Archives, the clerk of the House of Representatives, the chairman of the select House panel, and others.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in the case, which is pending in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
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