SCOTUS to Trump -Hard Pass- his petition was DENIED. End of the road for Trump
The Supreme Court’s February 22, 2022 Orders/Docket. In short they rejected Trump’s petition and this means the National Archivist has 15 days to deliver documents to the House Select Committee
Again apologies for taking a few days off from Substack. However to be perfectly candid my work load is insanely busy this week —this is predictable given we are in the home stretch of the legislative session coming to its conclusion. And yet some lawmakers decide to then become intractable ignoramuses and it’s like trying to extinguish a fire but you’re fighting with multiple pyromaniacs —who are hell bent on setting dozens of unnecessary fires. I’m also pretty sure the two gray hairs I found on my temple can solely be attributed to one particular General Assembly member.
The end of Trump’s quest to block documents to the House Select Committee on Jan6th..
In a very and I mean very brief order - the Supreme Court DENIED Trump’s request to have the Court take up his petition seeking intervention, thus prohibiting the NARA turning over documents to the House Select Committee. More specifically on page 18 of 29, found here
Case No>21-932 TRUMP, DONALD J. V. THOMPSON, BENNIE G., ET AL.
The motion of States United Democracy Center, et al. for leave to file a brief as amici curiae is granted. The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.
What does this SCOTUS ruling mean…
In layman’s this means the lower court’s ruling stands (see December 2021 USCA-DC ruling found here or you can read an in-depth analysis here). In short this is the end of the road for Trump’s endeavors to some how block the documents of which the incumbent President Biden already waived executive privilege and that was litigated from Federal District Court to the US Circuit Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court had previously rejected Trump’s emergency motion (read more here) concerning a separate set of documents, read none here
As noted, late last week President Joe Biden ordered the National Archives to send the Trump White House visitor logs to the House Select Committee on the January 6, 2021. Marking the third time that President Biden has rejected former president Donald Trump’s laughable “executive privilege claims”
Biden White House counsel Dana Remus issued a letter to the National Archives, stating that Biden determined that asserting executive privilege -I believe in October of 2021 I opined that Trump’s argument was not at all persuasive and that the Supreme Court would ultimately reject his petition. You can read the October 2021 article here -and a few days later in early November 2021 I published a follow up article essentially re-articulating the follies of Trump’s argument, you can read the November 2021 article here
“…is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified, as to these records and portions of records.”
And lastly you can also view the SCOTUS docket for Case No. 21-932
When I say this is the end of the road for Trump’s efforts to shield documents from the House Select Commission, that’s because it is and there’s no do-overs. It’s D-O-N-E and Trump has exhausted all possible paths. But significantly the House Select Committee’s investigation now means the National Archivist & NARA must send the official Trump White House visitor logs to the Select Committee. I don’t know why some thought Trump had a snowball’s chance in hell shielding his skullduggery but that’s now a moot point. The records will soon be in the hands of the select committee
What’s in the White House Visitors Log:
When an individual seeks to gain entry to the White House complex (which includes the West Wing, East Wing, and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building -EEOB, which is where most of the president’s staff actually work) — in short an individual can’t just walk up to the gate and get waived in by the Guards.
There are a few ways one can gain entry to the White House complex;
a pre screening clearance by the Secret Service (fun Fact after Avenatti called one of my kids school I had to alert the Secret Service and I voluntarily waived going on that field trip -thanks to Tracy & Gina who both doxed me to Avenatti) this is applicable to credentialed reporters too.
Absent a Secret Service Security Badge, an individual needs a White House staffer to put their biographical information, such as; first, middle and last name, date of birth, social security number, citizenship, gender, and city and state of residence — into a Secret Service-run database called the Worker And Visitor Entry System, or Waves.
See 2019 National Archivist letter to (Trump) White House Counsel, specifically addressing WAVES -any individual entering the White House Complex is required to obtain a pass. Side note a blue pass of for the West Wing, whereas a green pass is exclusively for the EEOB — These passes are scanned and cross referenced with WAVES. In addition the Secret Service Uniformed Division officer checks identification, which confirms that a visitor has been inputted into Waves.
As noted as a policy the Biden White House voluntarily provides information of their visitors logs —conversely under the Trump Administration those logs were withheld from the public. The reason the Trump White House visitor logs are of particular interest to the House Select Committee is they can identify who was in the complex on January 6, 2021. It’s not like Rudy could just roll up to the Security Check point and be waved in. My educated guess is the Select Committee will zero in on folks like; Mike Lindell, Sydney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Flynn, and others that have yet to be publicly identified.
Your daily saltwater therapy…
And for those of you not following the Instagram account for your daily dose of salt water therapy - well I think you are missing out on some moments of calmness and “namaste my mitches” moments
Also as previously mentioned my week is extraordinarily busy this week and the reality is, I’m not a cyborg and it is unlikely I’ll have the prerequisite bandwidth to spend time doing exhaustive research. Which means this is me telling you that my publication of Substack articles will likely be extremely limited this week. I’m sorry but I just don’t have the prerequisite free-time to do the level of research that meets my bar, which is pretty high. Again I’m sorry but at a certain point I need to prioritize my actual work load over my extracurricular Substack activities. Again give me about three more weeks and then my schedule returns to a more manageable pace. But I felt an obligation to my readers to preemptively explain why I won’t be publishing on a daily basis.
Be Well and if possible can someone please invent a way that I can have Red Bull directly injected into my veins? -Filey
Stress is real so manage your work load and don’t think you’re letting us down. So much happens every day that we’ve got plenty to chew on. I can wait for your next deep dive. Take care of you and thanks for helping us understand the rule of law in these historic times.
What a photo! That’ll calm us all down for the three weeks you are swamped. Thanks as always.