Obama-appointed Washington D.C. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has blocked President Donald Trump’s efforts to obtain “missing” records from the Democrats’ Jan. 6 House Select Committee.
In October, Trump’s attorneys filed a motion in his federal 2020 election case.
The motion sought the court’s permission to issue subpoenas for alleged “missing” materials and records obtained or produced by the now-disbanded Jan. 6 Committee.
However, Judge Chutkan just denied that request.
Instead, she accused Trump of not acting in “good faith” but rather of attempting to engage in a “fishing expedition,” Breitbart reported.
This is just the latest in a series of legal defeats Trump’s defense team has experienced at the hand of Chutkan.
The judge is presiding over Special Counsel Jack Smith’s criminal prosecution of the 45th president.
The case concerns Trump’s alleged efforts to challenge and overturn the disputed results of the 2020 election.
Given that the events of Jan. 6, 2021, are key to Special Counsel Smith’s prosecution of Trump, the defense has sought access to as much documented evidence and materials about that day as possible.
In light of complaints from Republican lawmakers that the prior Democrat-led House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6 events failed to preserve or turn over all materials it obtained or produced when it disbanded, Trump’s attorneys filed the October motion seeking permission from the court to subpoena that “missing” information itself.
Specifically, the motion sought to issue subpoenas against the National Archives, the House Clerk, the House Administration Committee and its current Chairman Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), attorneys for the Biden White House and Homeland Security, and former House Jan. 6 Committee Chairman Benny Thompson (D-MS) for any Jan. 6-related “missing materials” or records that may be in their possession.
Unfortunately for Trump, Judge Chutkan denied that motion in a seven-page order and opinion issued this week.
In her ruling, Chutkan wrote: “Defendant has not met his burdens with respect to his proposed Rule 17(c) subpoenas.
“He has not sufficiently justified his requests for either the ‘Missing Materials’ themselves or the other five categories of documents related to them.”
At another point, the judge said, “Defendant does not state with any specificity the information that he seeks in those records, repeating only that it is important and related to the events and people associated with the Select Committee’s work and therefore the January 6, 2021 attack.”
“The broad scope of the records that Defendant seeks, and his vague description of their potential relevance, resemble less ‘a good faith effort to obtain identified evidence’ than they do ‘a general ‘fishing expedition’ that attempts to use the [Rule 17(c) subpoena] as a discovery device,'” Chutkan added in the denial.
Breitbart noted that this denial of Trump’s request comes even as Chairman Loudermilk has loudly complained about “missing materials” related to the House Jan. 6 Committee’s probe.
Former Chairman Thompson has also admitted that not everything compiled by the former committee was archived or kept, including key videos, and transcripts, and countless other documents that may have proven useful to Trump’s defense.
Indeed, in an August letter from Thompson to Loudermilk, Thompson acknowledged, “The Select Committee did not archive temporary committee records that were not elevated by the Committee’s actions, such as use in hearings or official publications, or those that did not further its investigative activities.
“Accordingly, and contrary to your letter’s implication, the Select Committee was not obligated to archive all video recordings of transcribed interviews or depositions.”
Independent journalist Julie Kelly has been closely monitoring both the prosecutions of President Trump and of those charged in relation to the Capitol riot.
Kelly blasted Judge Chutkan for yet another disfavorable ruling against the defendant.
“Judge Chutkan denies another defense motion in Jack Smith’s J6 case against Trump,” Kelly tweeted.
“This will be death by a thousand cuts as she acts like Smith’s rubber stamp.
“Chutkan denies Trump’s motion to subpoena parties w/knowledge of missing J6 committee records.”
“The irony is Chutkan, a shameless partisan appointed by Obama, wrote the 2021 order piercing Trump’s [executive privilege] claims to force him to produce presidential records to J6 committee,” she added.
“There is proof J6 committee has withheld records from Congress — this is what Chutkan wants to conceal.”
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