Supreme Court refuses to block House Jan. 6 panel from Trump documents
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court refused Wednesday to block the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack from getting former President Donald Trump’s administration documents.
The four-page decision by Chief Justice John Roberts avoided a detailed analysis of Trump’s argument that the documents should remain confidential, which could have redefined the contours of executive privilege for the first time in nearly 50 years.
“The questions whether and in what circumstances a former President may obtain a court order preventing disclosure of privileged records from his tenure in office, in the face of a determination by the incumbent President to waive the privilege, are unprecedented and raise serious and substantial concerns,” Roberts wrote.
“Because the Court of Appeals concluded that President Trump’s claims would have failed even if he were the incumbent, his status as a former President necessarily made no difference to the court’s decision,” Roberts added.
Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed with Roberts, but noted the importance of the confidentiality of presidential communications, as outlined in a 1974 case involving former President Richard Nixon. Kavanaugh, who was appointed by Trump, said none of his arguments would have succeeded under the Nixon precedent.
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas would have granted the application to keep the documents confidential while the high court reviewed the case.
Trump was fighting the release of hundreds of pages of documents from the National Archives and Records Administration by arguing the records should remain confidential so that presidents receive candid advice from aides. The contested documents included handwritten notes and call logs that could suggest who he was talking with on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol trying to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory by Congress.
But a U.S. district court and a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit each ruled that President Biden’s waiver of executive privilege for materials sought by the investigation outweighed Trump’s claim.
Had it taken Trump’s case, the high court could have set new guidelines for the information Congress can obtain when investigating the executive branch. The last major precedent dealing with executive privilege came during the Watergate investigation of President Richard Nixon, who resigned after the court forced the release of his Oval Office recordings.
The documents at stake include handwritten notes and call logs for Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence, whose life was threatened as he presided over the Senate counting Electoral College votes that confirmed President Joe Biden won the 2020 election.
More:Trump claimed executive privilege to shield info from Jan. 6 committee. Here’s what that means
The case is significant not only for the documents at stake, but because several Trump aides and advisers have defied committee subpoenas by citing executive privilege.
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