Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday lost his appeal of a federal judge’s order requiring many of his top White House aides to testify in the Jan. 6 investigation.
A three-judge appeals court panel ruled that former chief of staff Mark Meadows and a raft of other aides must answer questions from the grand jury hearing evidence about Trump’s scheme to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.
Trump’s lawyers had asked for an emergency order Monday night to put the lower court’s order on hold while his appeal proceeds on the grounds of executive privilege.
The panel of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals judges took just a few hours to reject the appeal.
The Trump aides may be forced to testify in a matter of days.
Trump could appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, but CNN reported that is not expected.
Meadows was one of the only aides who spent hours by Trump’s side as the violent mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson delivered a withering account to the congressional Jan. 6 committee of Meadows appearing to be unwilling or unable to prod Trump into action.
Meadows, a former Republican congressman from North Carolina, has mostly defied demands for testimony about Trump’s potential misdeeds, at least as far as the public knows.
He did briefly cooperate with the congressional panel and handed over a batch of messages from allies mostly urging Meadows to persuade Trump to end the attack.
Legal analysts believe Meadows is a crucial witness because he could shed light on what Trump did and didn’t do during the roughly three hours that he did not take any overt steps to stop the violence.
Trump does not typically use email or other workplace electronic messaging, making Meadows a key nexus for communication between Trump and other allies.
Meadows also played a crucial role in organizing Trump’s broader effort to cling to power after losing to Joe Biden in the November election and the December vote of the Electoral College, according to evidence presented by the congressional committee.
Washington, D.C., federal Judge Beryl Howell, who had been overseeing the grand jury’s work, last month rejected Trump’s claim of executive privilege, which can shield the president’s decision-making in some cases.
Along with Meadows, the judge ordered Trump’s former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe to testify, along with national security adviser Robert O’Brien, top aide Stephen Miller, social media director Dan Scavino, homeland security chief Ken Cuccinelli, Nick Luna and John McEntee.
Howell recently left her post as Washington’s chief federal judge. She was replaced by Judge James Boasberg, prompting Trump’s legal team to ask him to reconsider Howell’s order. He refused.
The judges on the panel that unanimously rejected Trump’s appeal included Gregory Katsas, a Trump appointee, as well as Robert Wilkins and Patricia Millett, both appointees of President Barack Obama.
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