(Trends Wide) — Former President Donald Trump obtained a last-minute extension to prevent the House Select Committee investigating on January 6 from obtaining its documents from the White House as scheduled on Friday.
A three-judge panel of the Washington Circuit Court of Appeals, all appointed by Democrats, suspended the transfer on Thursday and settled oral arguments by the end of this month.
This is what you need to know:
What the House of Representatives wants
The House Select Committee, which is investigating the events leading up to Jan.6 and Jan.6, has sent requests for information to various federal agencies, including the National Archives, custodians of the White House records of the administration of Trump.
The commission requested “all documents and communications within the White House” that day, including logs of calls, hours and meetings with top officials and outside advisers, including Rudy Giuliani.
When can the Chamber obtain the records?
The National Archives was ready to send out 46 documents on which Trump claims executive privilege on Friday. It has already turned over more than 90 uncontested records.
Friday’s transfer would have included White House call logs, video logs and schedules related to Jan.6, as well as three pages of handwritten notes from Trump’s then-White House secretary.
More than 700 documents would arrive later in the month and beyond.
What Trump wants
Keep records locked in the National Archives.
He is claiming executive privilege over certain documents and says the Jan.6 commission is a partisan exercise run by Democrats.
“The disagreement between an incumbent president and his predecessor from a rival political party highlights the importance of executive privilege and the ability of presidents and their advisers to reliably give and receive full and frank advice, without worrying about communications being carried out. go public to reach a political goal, “Trump’s lawyers wrote.
What does the White House say about Biden?
The Biden White House does not want to get in the way and has said it will not enforce executive privilege to stop the transfer of documents.
Earlier this week, Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled that it is basically a Biden White House decision. And Biden wants to deliver the documents.
“Presidents are not kings and the plaintiff is not president,” Chutkan wrote Tuesday night.
“The court holds that the public interest lies in allowing, not prohibiting, the combined will of the legislative and executive branches to study the events that led up to January 6 and occurred on January 6, and to consider legislation to prevent them from such events happen. happening again, “Chutkan added in a 39-page opinion.
Presidential privilege “exists for the benefit of the Republic, not for any individual,” he wrote.
What happened on thursday?
Trump filed an emergency motion just before noon, asking the Washington Circuit Court of Appeals to block the transfer while it considers his next appeal. A three-judge court panel granted the motion and set a schedule of briefings and oral arguments for November 30.
In a two-page order, the three justices on the panel, all nominated by Democrats, wrote: “The purpose of this administrative order is to protect the jurisdiction of the court to address appellant’s claims of executive privilege and should not be construed in any way as a decision on the merits. “
Are they all Democrats?
Yes. The justices who signed the order are two nominees by former President Barack Obama, Patricia Millett and Robert Wilkins, as well as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, nominated by President Joe Biden, a possible Supreme Court nominee.
They are not the three that Trump would have chosen, to say the least. But that could end up working in your favor.
Isn’t that time consuming?
Yes, which appears to be part of Trump’s strategy.
In legal time, they are moving quite fast, but from the former president’s perspective, every day without a document dump to Congress is a victory.
Trump wants to lengthen the process as long as humanly possible: to have arguments in the appeals court, then in the Supreme Court if necessary.
He used the same techniques to prevent the Chamber from obtaining his tax records and other documents, and to prevent officials from testifying, and each step of the legal process can take weeks or months.
What happens if Trump loses in appeals court?
With oral arguments on November 30, the three-judge panel is likely not to issue a ruling until early December.
The losing party then has a couple of options. You can ask the court to hear the appeal in full, that is, ask the court of appeals in full to review the case, rather than just the three judges. If the court accepts the request, you will see more presentations, more debate and possibly oral arguments, and more free time. (The full court can also simply say “no thanks” to the request).
Or, after the three-judge panel rules, and assuming it doesn’t make it to the full court, the loser can go to the Supreme Court.
There, we would probably go through the same procedure, but through the “shadow docket” of the court, where judges often, but not always, move quickly.
What is this about ‘while appeals are taking place’?
At the center of all this remains Trump’s attempt to convince the courts that nothing should be turned over that he does not want to turn over because of executive privilege.
As of now, you have a temporary lock, but that is not a long-term solution.
When Trump actually does file his appeal on executive privilege claims, the same routine applies: It will begin with the consideration of a three-judge panel of the appellate court and continue from there.
So the loser before the appeals panel has options to continue with more appeals, including asking the Supreme Court to review everything again.
But doesn’t that take long?
Exactly.
So let’s say the Chamber finally gets the documents it wants; Can we see them too?
That would depend on the House Select Committee. But whatever happens, its members would see them before the rest of us.
What if they don’t get them and the Republicans win in the 2022 midterm elections?
The select commission is expected to be taken out of service.
