The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned away an appeal by former President Trump in his dispute with congressional investigators who have sought access to Trump-era records as part of a House panel’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
The court’s move, which came in a brief unsigned order issued without comment, comes after the justices denied Trump’s emergency request to block the transfer of his White House records from the National Archives to the House select committee, a process that began last month.
Tuesday’s development formally ends Trump’s legal effort to stymie lawmakers’ efforts to obtain a batch of schedules, call logs, emails and other requested documents that the committee says could illuminate key circumstances surrounding the deadly Capitol riot.
The order leaves intact a lower federal appeals court ruling that found Trump’s assertion of executive privilege and other legal theories unpersuasive in light of President Biden’s refusal to invoke privilege, as well as the House panel’s pressing task.
Trump turned to the Supreme Court in December after lower federal courts rejected his requests to halt the National Archives from passing along his administration’s records. His attorneys had asked the justices to shield the disputed materials from disclosure while they considered his formal appeal.
The justices, however, rebuffed Trump’s emergency request in a Jan. 19 ruling. Within hours, the Jan. 6 House committee began receiving records, a development that the panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) hailed as “a victory for the rule of law and American democracy.”
The court’s Tuesday order marked a denial of Trump’s formal request for appeal.
The Jan. 6 committee has not established a hard deadline for completing its investigation, but Thompson has said the panel hopes to wrap up by early spring.
The committee faces separate legal challenges to its investigative authority in ongoing court clashes with former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, as well as Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich and post-election legal adviser John Eastman.
Updated at 10:15 a.m.