Judge Tanya Chutkan was assigned Trump's case at random last month (pictured in 2016 at Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's memorial)
Donald Trump's quest to block the release of more than 700 pages of White House documents to the Democrat-led House committee investigating the Capitol riot is coming before an Obama-appointed judge later on Thursday morning.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan was handed the case at random last month. She's known for handing down harsh words and harsher sentences to people who participated in the Capitol riot, once denouncing them from the bench as a 'violent mob.'
The case will test the bounds of executive privilege, which the ex-president successfully invoked as a defense in past probes while he was commander-in-chief.
At 11 a.m. Eastern Time, Chutkan will hear Trump's lawyers explain why they believe the National Archives should be blocked from releasing his executive records.
She could issue the highly-anticipated ruling as early as this afternoon.
Trump has denounced the House select committee's investigation of January 6 as a 'witch hunt' and argued that he should have sole control over access to the records of his White House.
The files, which could include phone records, visitor logs, speech drafts and memos of Trump and his closest aides, have the potential to be groundbreaking for the bipartisan House probe.
The National Archives has already agreed to hand over the documents, and Joe Biden's White House said it would not stand in the way.
Lawmakers led by Democratic Committee Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and Republican Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming have sought to paint the documents as critical to their probe.
'In 2021, for the first time since the Civil War, the Nation did not experience a peaceful transfer of power,' committee lawyers said over the weekend, according to CNN.
Trump has denounced the House's investigation as a 'witch hunt' and claims he should have control over the release of his White House files
Lawmakers led by Democratic Committee Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson and Republican Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney have argued the documents are critical to their probe
They argued, 'A peaceful transfer of power from one President to another is crucial to the continuation of our democratic government. It is difficult to imagine a more critical subject for
