Former US President Donald Trump has been blocked in his attempt to get his hands on records about the investigation into the attack on the US Capitol on January 6.
Judge Tanya Chutkan denied a motion from his team to issue subpoenas to members of the committee that looked into the Capitol attack in 2021 and branded it a “fishing expedition”.
It is the latest courtroom defeat for Mr Trump in the case alleging he plotted to overturn the 2020 election.
Judge Chutkan has already issued a gag order and denied his request to remove language from the indictment he said could prejudice a jury against him.
In the motion, filed in October, Mr Trump had sought to issue subpoenas to Representative Bennie Thompson, chairman of the 6 January committee, White House Counsel Richard Sauber, the Department of Homeland Security’s general counsel, the national archivist, the House clerk, the committee on House administration, and Representative Barry Loudermilk.
The subpoenas were for what Mr Trump called “missing materials” and communications about how those materials were handled.
Judge Chutkan said Mr Trump had not specified what information he was seeking in the materials and only gave a “vague description of their potential relevance”.
She focused on his requests for the committee’s video recordings and transcripts of witness interviews.
Noting the transcripts had already been provided to Mr Trump, she said he had not explained how the videos could help his case.
Altogether, he had not “sufficiently justified” his request, she wrote.
In a series of primetime televised hearings last year, the bipartisan committee presented its own case arguing Mr Trump sought to stay in the White House by contesting the results of the 2020 election and rallied supporters to try to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden as the rightful winner.
It often showed videos of depositions from Mr Trump’s closest aides and confidants, including his daughter Ivanka Trump and former Attorney General Bill Barr.
Mr Trump is the current front-runner for the Republican nomination in next year’s election, and juggling four criminal court cases with his busy campaign schedule.
On the same day that Judge Chutkan denied his subpoena request,Mr Trump filed a new, 34-page motion to compel the prosecution to give himinformation from the Justice Department and Homeland Security, mostly onsupposed threats to the integrity of the 2020 election.
