Now we find out what Donald Trump was hiding
A loss for Trump is a win for democracy. According to CNN, the National Archives has already begun turning over documents to the House Select Committee because the Supreme Court decided to follow the law, which many did not expect them to do. Finally, we get to see what Trump so badly did not want us to see. This decision is important for several reasons. First, Trump sees that packing the SCOTUS has done him no good.
Second and most important, the House Select Committee can begin to dive into documents that Trump sought to keep secret. According to CNN, there are over 700 documents ready to be transferred, including call logs, so the committee will get a good idea of who all Trump spoke with leading up to and on January 6. The third most important outcome of this decision is that now, people like Steve Bannon and Mark Meadows can stop claiming executive privilege. If the former executive has no privilege, they certainly have none. Legal experts agree, calling their claims “frivolous.”
While SCOTUS did not rule on the issue of disputes between former and sitting presidents, it upheld the appellate court’s ruling that Trump failed to show harm to executive branch confidentiality. President Biden declining to support Trump’s executive privilege claims weakened Trump’s position. This ruling also lends additional legitimacy to the committee. If the courts do not buy Trump’s arguments that the committee is merely on yet another witch hunt, that argument is shut down. Even better, Trump’s plan to drag this out until after the midterm elections—hoping that Republicans will take control and close the investigation—is dead. It also puts pressure on the committee.
They have a voluminous number of documents to get through, and because of Trump’s antics, their time to do so has been shortened. Depending on what they can uncover, however, this investigation may not take as long as some might think. Along the way, they have been assisted by those who chose to cooperate, such as Keith Kellogg, Mike Pence’s former national security adviser, who was with Trump that day. Who knows what information Kellogg has provided that will help the committee identify where to start their review? There is so much that we do not know about how this committee has worked up until now, and we must trust and believe that they have something to work with or they would not continue their quest. The coming weeks and months will be interesting, and Trump had better prepare for bad news.
Speaking of bad news, Fox 5 Atlanta reported that District Attorney Fani Willis has requested a grand jury investigate Trump’s pressure call to Secretary of State Raffensperger. In her letter to Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Christopher Brasher, Willis said her office “has received information indicating a reasonable probability that the State of Georgia’s administration of election in 2020, including the State’s election of the President of the United States, was subject to criminal disruptions.” Oh, boy. 2022 could be a bad year for Trump but a good one for democracy.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years