On the same day Donald Trump surrendered to the Manhattan Criminal Court to be arrested and arraigned on 34 felony charges, a federal appeals court denied an emergency motion from Trump’s legal team in the DOJ’s January 6th investigation.
Trump’s team had tried to assert the protection of executive privilege to keep several of his close aides from being compelled to testify, but a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Justice Department on Tuesday and ordered Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows and other top Trump White House staffers to appear.
Others who will now be forced to testify along with Meadows include the worst of Trump’s very fine people: Aide Stephen Miller; former Department of Homeland Security official Ken Cuccinelli; former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, former national security adviser Robert O’Brien; John McEntee, then-director of the Presidential Personnel Office; and Nick Luna, an assistant to Trump.
Mark Meadows, who managed to avoid honoring a subpoena from the January 6th House Select Committee, was a major player in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia and will have plenty of information to provide to Special Counsel Jack Smith.
But Trump’s legal woes didn’t end there.
In a separate ruling, District Court Judge Beryl Howell ruled that one of his lawyers, Evan Corcoran, can’t refuse to answer questions before the grand jury assembled in the DOJ’s Mar-a-Lago investigation due to attorney-client privilege.
Twitter was feasting on all of the chickens that had come home to roost on Trump’s terrified head on Tuesday.
And just a few minutes ago, the panel unanimously DENIED Trump's motion to vacate Judge Howell's order & to stay proceedings, which means unless the Supreme Court steps in — and Trump has gone 0-for at SCOTUS on these requests — Meadows et al. WILL be required to testify. /6 pic.twitter.com/p3uJqryAey
— Opening Arguments (@openargs) April 4, 2023
JUST IN: A federal appeals court just blocked Trump's efforts to stop his closest aides from testifying to Special Counsel Jack Smith for his January 6th investigation.
That means members of his inner circle such as Mark Meadows, Stephen Miller, Dan Scavino, John Ratcliffe, Ken… pic.twitter.com/1rYPbZvNe9
— Really American 🇺🇸 (@ReallyAmerican1) April 4, 2023
Mhmm. These top aides include Mark Meadows and, serpent in human form, Stephen Miller.
Got my second Bellini on deck now with pancakes, bacon and eggs. 😘 https://t.co/OwH5DEb93V
— Renee (@PettyLupone) April 4, 2023
Original reporting by Rebecca Beitsch at The Hill.
Tara Dublin is a woefully underappreciated and unrepresented writer currently shopping a super cool novel that has nothing to do with politics while also fighting fascism on the daily.
Follow her on Twitter @taradublinrocks.
Editor’s note: This is an opinion column that solely reflects the opinions of the author.
