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SCOTUS Denies trump’s Demand . . .

Bill Haskell | January 19, 2022 11:54 pm

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SCOTUS Denies Trump’s Demand To Withhold Docs From Jan 6th Committee

DONALD J. TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES v. BENNIE G. THOMPSON, IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS CHAIRMAN OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE THE JANUARY 6TH ATTACK ON THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL, ET AL
The application for stay of mandate and injunction pending review presented to THE CHIEF JUSTICE and by him re-ferred to the Court is denied.
“To be clear, to say that a former President can invoke the privilege for Presidential communications that occurred during his Presidency does not mean that the privilege is absolute or cannot be overcome. The tests set forth in Nixon, 418 U. S., at 713, and Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities v. Nixon, 498 F. 2d 725, 731 (CADC 1974) (en banc), may apply to a former President’s privilege claim as they do to a current President’s privilege claim. Moreover, it could be argued that the strength of a privilege claim should diminish to some extentas the years pass after a former President’s term in office. In all events, the Nixon and Senate Select Committee tests ould provide substantial protection for Presidential communications, while still requiring disclosure in certain circumstances.
The Court of Appeals concluded that the privilege claimat issue here would not succeed even under the Nixon and Senate Select Committee tests. Therefore, as this Court’s order today makes clear, the Court of Appeals’ broader statements questioning whether a former President may successfully invoke the Presidential communications privilege if the current President does not support the claim were dicta and should not be considered binding precedent going forward.”

553876844-SCOTUS-Denies-Trump-s-Executive-Privilege-Claim.pdf

This is going to get interesting now.

2 Comments

Fred C. Dobbs says:

January 20, 2022 at 7:26 am

Supreme Court allows Jan. 6 committee to get Trump documents

NY Times via Boston Globe – Jan 19

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused a request from former President Donald Trump to block the release of White House records concerning the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, effectively rejecting Trump’s claim of executive privilege and clearing the way for the House committee investigating the riot to receive the documents hours later.

The court, with only Justice Clarence Thomas noting a dissent, let stand an appeals court ruling that Trump’s desire to maintain the confidentiality of internal White House communications was outweighed by the need for a full accounting of the attack and the disruption of the certification of the 2020 electoral count. …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  January 20, 2022 at 7:29 am
  
  In an unsigned order, the majority wrote that Trump’s request for a stay while the case moved forward presented weighty issues, including “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.”
  
  But an appeals court’s ruling against Trump did not turn on those questions, the order said.
  
  “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,” the order said.
  
  Within hours of the decision, the National Archives turned over hundreds of pages of documents to the committee.
  
  Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chair of the committee, and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., vice chair, called the decision “a victory for the rule of law and American democracy.”
  
  “Our work goes forward to uncover all the facts about the violence of Jan. 6 and its causes,” they said.
  
  It was the latest example of a case in which the Supreme Court, which includes three justices appointed by Trump, ruled against him and his allies on issues related to the 2020 election. …