The fence around Trump closes due to the January 6 coup

A string of subpoenas in the framework of a legislative investigation into the January 6 coup against the Capitol and a court reaffirming that investigation sent Donald Trump a clear message: you cannot escape justice forever.

The former president suffered a severe legal blow when a federal court in Washington on Tuesday night rejected his attempt to block documents and other information requested by lawmakers investigating the deadly attack on the Capitol.

Meanwhile, the focus of the investigation shifted from security flaws to people in the orbit of Trump, again drew attention to his role in an alleged plot to spread lies about the existence of fraud in the 2020 elections and prevent Congress from certifying the victory of Joe Biden.

David Greenberg, a journalism and history professor at Rutgers University, New Jersey, found it impossible to predict the political effect of recent events for Trump, who avoided two congressional convictions and emerged largely unscathed from various federal probes.

“But (legislative) research is important for more direct, material and concrete reasons”, He stated Greenberg .

“He has already managed to establish a more complete and comprehensive picture of who in the Trump administration and orbit was involved in planning the January 6 riot, what they did to achieve it, and what they expected to happen.”.

The first batch of documents related to the coup will be turned over to lower house investigators on Friday unless a court intervenes, as Trump’s lawyers made it clear they will appeal.

“Presidents are not kings”

“Presidents are not kings and the plaintiff is not president”, Said the judge Tanya Chutkan by rejecting the ex-president’s request, arguing that he cannot override the will of current president Joe Biden to release the documents.

“At its core, this is a dispute between a former president and the current president. And the Supreme Court has already made it clear that in such circumstances, greater weight is given to the opinion of the holder“, said Chutkan in his 39-page decision.

The case is likely to end up in the Supreme Court, meaning congressional investigators would not see the disputed documents anytime soon.

“The battle to defend the executive privilege of past, present and future presidents, from the beginning, was destined to be decided by the courts of appeal.”, Tweeted the spokesman for Trump after failure.

But the congressman Bennie Thompson, who chairs the nine-member committee conducting the investigation, hailed the decision as a victory for lawmakers conducting investigations involving the White House.

“Decisive failure”

“The select committee appreciates the court’s swift and decisive ruling on the former president’s lawsuit, which I see as little more than an attempt to delay and obstruct our investigation.Thompson said in a statement.

“The presidential records we request from the National Archives are critical to understanding the dire events of January 6”He added.

The committee has interviewed more than 150 witnesses and issued 35 subpoenas – 16 this week alone – from many people who occupied front-row seats in the chaotic final weeks of Trump’s presidency.

Many held key positions in his administration, including adviser Stephen Miller and press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who made false statements promoting Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that he had stolen the November 2020 election.

Also included are campaign advisers and law professor John Eastman, who drew up a six-step plan for how the Trump team could ignore the will of millions of voters and reverse the election outcome.

The committee’s investigators also interviewed the attorney Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official, who was at the center of Trump’s lobbying campaign to get that portfolio to interfere in the elections.

Liz Cheney, the top Republican on the investigative commission, said that Trump’s pressure on his allies to defy the subpoenas shows that he was “personally involved in the planning and execution of January 6”.

And he warned Tuesday that Trump poses an unprecedented threat against the “foundations of our constitutional republic, with the help of political leaders who have voluntarily become hostages of this dangerous and irrational man”.