最高法院周三驳回了前总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)的请求,即推迟下级法院的命令,即从1月6日起,将他数百页的总统记录移交给调查美国国会大厦袭击的国会委员会。
投票结果是8比1。克拉伦斯·托马斯法官会批准申请的。
去年11月,在特朗普起诉该委员会和国家档案馆后,一家上诉法院暂时暂停了记录移交,声称该委员会对750多页记录拥有行政特权,国家档案馆馆长认定这些记录与1月6日对特朗普推翻2020年大选的努力以及随后对国会大厦的袭击有关。
该委员会正在寻找的记录包括1月6日及其前后的白宫记录、通话记录和访客记录。
“下级法院的决定大大扩大了国会的权力,”特朗普的律师在他们的复审请愿书中告诉最高法院。“宪法、本法院的先例和《总统记录法》阻止两个政治上结盟的政府部门行使不受约束的权力来破坏总统职位和我们的共和国。本法院应授予调取案卷令,以确保国会权力的非法行使受到理性和法律的制约。”
在法院的裁决中,首席大法官约翰·罗伯茨写道,“在现任总统决定放弃特权的情况下,前总统是否以及在什么情况下可以获得法院命令,禁止披露其任期内的特权记录,这是前所未有的,并引起了严重和实质性的关切。”
罗伯茨写道:“然而,上诉法院没有机会决定这些问题,因为它分析并驳回了特朗普总统在(他)倡导的任何测试中的特权主张,而没有考虑他作为前总统的地位。”。
众议院委员会的领导人赞扬了最高法院的决定。
“最高法院今晚的行动是法治和美国民主的胜利,”D-Miss主席本尼·汤普森说。联合主席利兹·切尼在一份联合声明中说。“特别委员会已经开始收到前总统希望隐藏的记录,我们期待着关于这一重要信息的更多作品。我们的工作是揭露1月6日暴力事件的所有事实及其原因。”
他们继续说,“我们不会被阻止为美国人民寻求答案,提出立法建议来加强我们的民主,并帮助确保再也不会发生类似的事情。”
曼德尔·恩根/法新社通过盖蒂图像
(档案)在这张2021年1月12日拍摄的档案照片中,美国总统唐纳德·特朗普登上了董事会...
在诉讼中,特朗普的律师杰西·宾纳尔辩称,该委员会“已决定骚扰特朗普总统”...通过向“美国档案员”发送一份非法的、毫无根据的、过度传播的记录请求,并指责总统乔·拜登通过拒绝阻止向1月6日的委员会发布特朗普的记录,参与了“一场容纳其党派盟友的政治阴谋”。
相反,拜登下令国家档案馆公布特朗普试图归类为特权通信的记录。
这一决定标志着该委员会在法律上的一次重大胜利,他们努力获得文件,这些文件可能进一步揭示特朗普在数千名特朗普的支持者袭击国会大厦时,特朗普在做什么——以及白宫如何反应。这也是特朗普的一次重大失败。最近几个月,特朗普试图淡化国会大厦袭击的严重性,同时试图阻止发布文件,他声称这些文件不会显示他自己或袭击发生时与他沟通的人有不当行为的证据。
Supreme Court paves way for Trump White House document review by Jan. 6 committee
The Supreme Court on Wednesday denied former President Donald Trump's request for a stay of a lower court mandate that hundreds of pages of his presidential records from Jan. 6 be turned over to the congressional committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The vote was 8-1. Justice Clarence Thomas would have granted the application.
In November, an appeals court put a temporary pause on the records handover after Trump sued the committee and the National Archives, asserting executive privilege over more than 750 pages of records that the National Archivist had determined were relevant to the Jan. 6 probe into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the subsequent attack on the Capitol.
Among the records being sought by the committee were White House notes and call and visitor logs from on and around Jan. 6.
"The decision of the court below substantially expands congressional power," Trump's attorneys told the Supreme Court in their petition for review. "The Constitution, this Court’s precedent, and the Presidential Records Act prevent two politically-aligned branches of government from wielding unfettered power to undermine the Presidency and our Republic. This Court should grant certiorari to ensure unlawful exercises of congressional power are checked by both reason and law."
In the court's decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that "the questions whether and in what circumstances a former President may obtain a court order preventing disclosure of privileged records from his tenure in office, in the face of a determination by the incumbent President to waive the privilege, are unprecedented and raise serious and substantial concerns."
"The Court of Appeals, however, had no occasion to decide these questions because it analyzed and rejected President Trump’s privilege claims 'under any of the tests [he] advocated,' without regard to his status as a former President," Roberts wrote.
The House committee's leaders praised the decision by the Supreme Court.
"The Supreme Court’s action tonight is a victory for the rule of law and American democracy," Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and co-chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said in a joint statement. "The Select Committee has already begun to receive records that the former President had hoped to keep hidden and we look forward to additional productions regarding this important information. Our work goes forward to uncover all the facts about the violence of January 6th and its causes."
They continued, "We will not be deterred in our effort to get answers for the American people, make legislative recommendations to strengthen our democracy, and help ensure nothing like that day ever happens again.”
In the lawsuit, Trump's attorney Jesse Binnall argued the committee "has decided to harass President Trump ... by sending an illegal, unfounded, and overbroad records request to the Archivist of the United States" and accused President Joe Biden of engaging in "a political ploy to accommodate his partisan allies" by refusing to block the release of Trump's records to the Jan. 6 committee.
Instead, Biden ordered the National Archives to release records Trump had sought to classify as privileged communications.
The decision marks a major legal victory for the committee in their efforts to obtain documents that could shed further light on what Trump was doing -- and how the White House reacted -- as thousands of Trump's supporters attacked the Capitol building. It also represents a significant defeat for Trump, who in recent months has sought to downplay the severity of the Capitol assault while attempting to prevent the release of documents that he has claimed would show no evidence of wrongdoing by himself or those he was communicating with around the time of the attack.