The Daily Fuckup

Trump’s effort to block release of White House records tied to the Jan. 6 investigation was already moving before the end of December. The Supreme Court docket in Trump v. Thompson shows that on Dec. 23, 2021, Trump filed both his petition for review and his application for a stay of the lower court’s mandate. The same day, respondents asked for expedited consideration. ([supremecourt.gov](https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=%2Fdocket%2Fdocketfiles%2Fhtml%2Fpublic%2F21-932.html))

The next key filing came on Dec. 29, when Trump submitted a supplemental brief. On Dec. 30, the docket filled out with opposition papers from the executive branch respondents and from Bennie G. Thompson and the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. That sequence is the record in the case. ([supremecourt.gov](https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=%2Fdocket%2Fdocketfiles%2Fhtml%2Fpublic%2F21-932.html))

The dispute centered on access to presidential records from Trump’s tenure and whether they could be withheld from the House committee. In its Jan. 19, 2022 order denying Trump’s application, the Court said the questions raised by a former president seeking to block disclosure of privileged records, after the sitting president had waived privilege, were “unprecedented” and serious. The Court also noted the D.C. Circuit had rejected Trump’s privilege claims under the tests he advanced. ([supremecourt.gov](https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=%2Fdocket%2Fdocketfiles%2Fhtml%2Fpublic%2F21-932.html))

The National Archives had already set out its position earlier that year. In a Jan. 20, 2021 press release launching the Trump Presidential Library website, NARA said it receives Trump administration records under the Presidential Records Act, that the records will be preserved in its facilities in the Washington area, and that access will be provided through the Trump Presidential Library administered by the agency. ([archives.gov](https://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2021/press-donald-j-trump-presidential-library))

By the end of December, the paper trail—not the rhetoric—was driving the case forward. The docket shows a dispute that had already moved from the lower courts to the Supreme Court, with filings stacking up around the same core issue: who gets access to the records, and when. ([supremecourt.gov](https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=%2Fdocket%2Fdocketfiles%2Fhtml%2Fpublic%2F21-932.html))