Supreme Court rejects Trump effort to shield White House documents from Jan. 6 committee

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The Supreme Court turned down former President Donald Trump's request to hear his challenge of a lower court decision ordering him to turn over documents to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 capitol riot.

The documents, currently held by the National Archives, are records from the final weeks of the Trump administration, and are being sought as part of the probe that is exploring the protest that interrupted the process of counting electoral votes, as well as other attempts to overturn the results of the November 2020 election.

BIDEN BLOCKS TRUMP EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE CLAIM ON DOCUMENTS RELATED TO JAN. 6

The Supreme Court's decision not to hear Trump's challenge of a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling came as part of list of orders, without explanation or comment from any of the justices.

FILE - In this Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020, file photo, President Donald Trump arrives on the South Lawn of the White House, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Trump had previously turned to the high court to temporarily block the circuit court order pending a decision on his Supreme Court petition, but the Supreme Court denied that request in January.

SUPREME COURT DENIES TRUMP REQUEST TO BLOCK JAN. 6 COMMITTEE SUBPOENAS

The Court noted that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which upheld the Jan. 6 Committee's request for documents, had ruled Trump would have lost the case even if he were still president.

"The questions whether and in what circumstances a former President may obtain a court order preventing disclosure of privileged records from his tenure in office, in the face of a determination by the incumbent President to waive the privilege, are unprecedented and raise serious and substantial concerns," the Court wrote. "Because the Court of Appeals concluded that President Trump’s claims would have failed even if he were the incumbent, his status as a former President necessarily made no difference to the court’s decision."

Trump has claimed that the records are protected by executive privilege. President Biden has rejected that claim. Last week, Biden ordered the National Archives to turn over White House visitor's logs for dates including the day of the riot. Those logs are to be turned over to the House committee, but will not automatically be made public.

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Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in January that denying Trump's claim of privilege essentially eliminates the existence of such privilege.

"A former President must be able to successfully invoke the Presidential communications privilege for communications that occurred during his Presidency, even if the current President does not support the privilege claim," Kavanaugh wrote. "Concluding otherwise would eviscerate the executive privilege for Presidential communications."