One third of the Justices on the Supreme Court were nominated by President Trump, but this hasn’t bought him the kind of loyalty he expects. On Tuesday, the Court refused to hear his appeal seeking to deny the U.S. House of Representatives January 6 investigatory committee the White House records they seek.
The court had previously rejected Trump’s emergency request to block the National Archives from turning over the materials while the court considered whether to take up the case. The documents Trump was trying to block in court are already in the hands of the House Select Committee investigating January 6.
Tuesday’s order — which included no further explanation of why the court was not taking up the case — means that the lower court decisions approving the release of the documents will stand.
Trump’s Justices didn’t give him the courtesy of an explanation, and you have to scroll down 18 pages into the order to even find the case. The effort to conceal facts from Congress just isn’t working.
Tuesday’s development formally ends Trump’s legal effort to stymie lawmakers’ efforts to obtain a batch of schedules, call logs, emails and other requested documents that the committee says could illuminate key circumstances surrounding the deadly Capitol riot.
It’s a lot harder to obstruct justice when you’re not occupying the White House.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta shot down Trump’s claim of “absolute immunity” from multiple lawsuits that have been brought by House Democrats and police officers accusing him of inciting last year’s insurrection.
The Biden administration also stepped in last week and once again rejected Trump’s attempts to shield certain White House records from the Committee. In a letter to National Archivist David Ferriero, White House counsel Dana Remus said Biden denied his predecessor’s executive privilege claim over White House visitor logs, which the Committee is seeking in its investigation into last year’s Capitol attack.
Trump is not going to have much success with a stonewalling strategy, but he still has the advantage that most Republicans support him and therefore most Republicans will make excuses for him irrespective of the law, or historic norms, or compelling testimony and factual evidentiary presentations of his crimes. In other words, if Trump did it, it must be okay. If Trump did it, then no one should give him a hard time about it.
If anyone gives him a hard time, like say the leadership of Ukraine, then most Trump supporters will back Ukraine being wiped off the map. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are wiped out of the party for participating in the January 6 committee investigation.
There appears to be no help for this. But at least we’ll get a fairly complete and accurate historical record, and maybe it will survive the coming fascist takeover after the midterms. Could be, maybe, one day they’ll be a proper reckoning.
