The United States Supreme Court ruled against former President Donald Trump’s refusal to let the National Archives share documents from his presidency with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol incident. The judgment of the court was made public in the form of an unsigned one-paragraph order. The only justice to declare he would have approved Trump’s request, which is based on the assumption that the data is protected by executive privilege, was Justice Clarence Thomas, who was chosen by previous President Ronald Reagan.
Former presidents will no longer be able to hide communications made while in office after returning to private life, as has been customary throughout US history. The verdict denies Trump’s plan to appeal in the case to keep the materials hidden, and it means that the House Judiciary Committee’s investigation into the Capitol disturbance on January 6 will include more than 700 pages of data pertaining to emails, call logs, and other information requests.
The current administration was concerned that providing all of the papers requested by the committee would risk national security and presidential privilege. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was nominated by Trump, agreed with the majority ruling but wrote a series of separate paragraphs criticizing the United States Court of Appeals for siding with a lower court’s ruling rejecting Trump’s bid to keep presidential records out of the Jan. 6 committee, which was filed in October.
The decision comes only hours after the former president’s attorneys filed a brief with the Supreme Court declaring that the legal struggle to keep presidential materials secret will not interfere with the investigation into the Capitol incident. “The delay will have no effect on respondents,” Trump’s attorneys claimed in answer to the House panel. “Despite their plea that the investigation be completed as quickly as possible, more than a year has passed since January 6, 2021,” years will pass until the next power shift occurs.
