Judge Denies Trump’s ‘Fishing Expedition’ to Subpoena Jan. 6 Committee Records
A federal judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s upcoming election interference trial ruled on Monday that his attempt to subpoena missing records from the House Jan. 6 committee appeared to be a fishing expedition lacking good faith.
Trump’s legal team wanted to subpoena various officials, including the U.S. archivist, the clerk of the House of Representatives, the Committee on House Administration, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., and Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. They argued that there was a significant overlap between the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation and the trial, and that the materials would likely involve trial witnesses.
However, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will preside over Trump’s trial starting in March, denied the request for federal government officials to produce Jan. 6 committee records. In her ruling, she stated that Trump’s request had a broad scope and a vague description of their potential relevance, which resembled more of a fishing expedition than a good faith effort to obtain identified evidence.
Prior to the dissolution of the Jan. 6 committee in January, its chairman, Rep. Thompson, turned over a substantial amount of records to the U.S. archives and made thousands of pages available online, including transcripts of interviews conducted by the committee.
Meanwhile, Rep. Loudermilk clarified that only written transcripts were transferred after the committee’s dissolution and that video recordings of transcribed interviews and depositions were not archived or transferred.
The federal election interference trial is one of four criminal cases brought against Trump and is expected to be the first to go to trial, with jury selection scheduled for March 4. Over 1,200 individuals have been charged in connection with the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, with more cases still under investigation.
Trump has been indicted on charges of conspiring to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by using false claims of election fraud to hinder the government’s function of collecting, counting, and certifying election results.
As the trial approaches, this ruling prevents Trump’s legal team from accessing Jan. 6 committee records they believed could be relevant to the case. It remains to be seen how this ruling will impact Trump’s defense strategy and the overall trajectory of the trial.
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