The hearing may be the pivotal moment in a potentially historic legal fight about the authority of a former president, the House’s investigative power and the reach of executive privilege.
It is set to begin at 11 a.m. ET.
In the short term, the case also may have huge implications for the bipartisan House investigation, which is pushing for records and witnesses before the midterm elections take place next year. Without access to the documents, the House could be hampered significantly in its fact-finding.
In court, the House has cast its investigation as one of its most critical tasks in history. “In 2021, for the first time since the Civil War, the Nation did not experience a peaceful transfer of power,” lawyers for the House wrote over the weekend. “A peaceful transfer of power from one President to another is crucial to the continuation of our democratic government. It is difficult to imagine a more critical subject for Congressional investigation, and Mr. Trump’s arguments cannot overcome that pressing legislative need.”
The National Archives, a part of the executive branch that inherited Trump’s presidential records after he left office, has already decided the House should get access to the records from Trump’s term as President. The agency is set to turn those over beginning next week, on November 12, unless Chutkan or an appeals court orders otherwise.
But the issues about executive privilege that Trump raises now put the court in a novel position weighing the needs of the House against his pleas for privacy for his now-completed time in office.
“Permitting the expansive request here would harm future presidents and their close aides by allowing invasive congressional fishing expeditions that will certainly chill candid advice and harm the institution of the presidency,” Trump’s lawyers wrote to the court this week.
The…
Read More: Trump seeks to release of presidential documents at major hearing