Orange Meltdown, Con't

 Reminder: I absolutely did call this one on Trump's fight with the National Archives.

 

Me, I fully expect the National Archives to be blocked by an appeals court injunction this week and for the case to go before SCOTUS.  There's no way the National Archives gets the documents to the January 6th Committee without a court fight.

 

 Well lo and behold.

A federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily blocked the release of White House records sought by a U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, granting — for now — a request from former President Donald Trump.

The administrative injunction issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit effectively bars until the end of this month the release of records that were to be turned over Friday. The appeals court set oral arguments in the case for Nov. 30.

The stay gives the court time to consider arguments in a momentous clash between the former president, whose supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, and President Joe Biden and Congress, who have pushed for a thorough investigation of the riot. It delays the House committee from reviewing records that lawmakers say could shed light on the events leading up to the insurrection and Trump's efforts to delegitimize an election he lost.

The National Archives, which holds the documents, says they include call logs, handwritten notes, and a draft executive order on “election integrity.”

Biden waived executive privilege on the documents. Trump then went to court arguing that as a former president, he still had the right to exert privilege over the records and releasing them would damage the presidency in the future.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Tuesday rejected those arguments, noting in part, “Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.” She again denied an emergency motion by Trump on Wednesday.

 

This wasn't a hard call by any means. Judge Chutkan all but begged for the law to be enjoined "by court order" in her earlier denials.

 

We won't see a ruling on this into well into 2022, and Trump will appeal to SCOTUS when he loses.

Roberts and the conservatives will find a way to pay Trump back next summer with a narrow ruling that states executive privilege of a former president applies to everything by that person without an express act by Congress, which of course will never happen.

Like the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act, Roberts will scold the legislative branch for refusing to update the law, and that will be the end of that.

That remains the most likely outcome here. It's Chief Justice Roberts's specialty.