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It’s been nearly two months since we learned that special counsel Jack Smith, as part of his criminal investigations into Donald Trump, was issuing grand jury subpoenas to some highly prominent figures from the former president’s inner circle, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Not surprisingly, this led to the latest fight over executive privilege. Also not surprisingly, the Republican’s efforts have fallen short.
Two weeks ago, a federal judge rejected Trump’s executive privilege claims and ordered several former administration officials to comply with the special counsel’s subpoenas. The list wasn’t short: Meadows was the most notable name, but the list also included former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, former national security adviser Robert O’Brien, former aide Stephen Miller, former deputy chief of staff and social media director Dan Scavino, as well as White House aides Nick Luna and John McEntee, and Ken Cuccinelli, a former top official in the Department of Homeland Security.
The order led Team Trump to file an emergency appeal. As Politico reported this afternoon, that didn’t work, either.
A federal appeals court in Washington D.C. has rejected an emergency bid by former President Donald Trump to block several top aides from testifying in the special counsel investigation of his effort to subvert the 2020 election. In a sealed order, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Trump’s urgent demand to block his aides from being required to appear before special counsel Jack Smith’s grand jury.
As my colleague Lisa Rubin noted, the three-judge appellate panel included Judge Gregory Katsas — who is both a Trump nominee and a former member of the White House counsel’s office during Trump’s presidency.
The developments stand out in part because of the dramatic split-screen: As the Republican prepared to leave Trump Tower in order to get arrested, his lawyers learned of their latest setback in an entirely different criminal investigation.
But it’s also notable that many of these witnesses have important perspectives to share as part of Smith’s Jan. 6 investigation. In fact, as we recently discussed, the former White House chief of staff is arguably among the most important witnesses in the entire case.
It was Meadows who was with Trump in the Oval Office during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. It was Meadows who was involved in the fake electors scheme. It was Meadows who was in frequent communication with far-right GOP lawmakers about efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. It was Meadows who allegedly — and quite literally — set fire to documents in a White House fireplace, several times, after having important post-election meetings.
It was also Meadows who reportedly told Cassidy Hutchinson, one of his top aides, that “things might get real, real bad” on Jan. 6.
And now, it’s Meadows — among several others — who’ve been told it’s time to talk to federal prosecutors under oath.
At this point, as an NBC News report noted, Trump’s lawyers can either appeal the case to the full D.C. Circuit, take their chances with the U.S. Supreme Court, or allow the testimony to happen without further delay.
Watch this space.
This post revises our related earlier coverage.