Supreme Court Clears Way for Jan. 6 Committee to Obtain Trump Documents

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way Wednesday for the House select committee investigating Jan. 6 to obtain documents that former President Donald Trump had sought to safeguard.

Trump filed a lawsuit in October asking the court to keep his White House records private, arguing they be shielded under executive privilege, as the committee sought to obtain them for its investigation. The committee is seeking a host of documents, including records of communication between the Trump White House and Justice Department in the days prior to the attack on the Capitol.

SCOTUS Blog reported:

Trump argues that as a former president he has the power to keep the documents secret, but two lower courts have rejected that argument. Trump now hopes to find a more receptive audience at the Supreme Court, where on Thursday he urged the justices to intervene. Trump argued that the stakes are high, and that his case will determine whether presidents can “rely upon executive privilege, separation of powers, and the Presidential Records Act to protect confidential Presidential records of deliberations from premature production to political rivals.

CNN reported Wednesday that the Court ruled against the former president:

The court’s order means that more than 700 documents that could shed light on the events leading up to the insurrection when hundreds of rioters converged on the Capitol attempting to stop certification of the 2020 presidential election results will be transferred to Congress.

The move effectively moots former President Donald Trump’s pending appeal in the case that centered on keeping the documents secret.

This story is developing.