Looking ahead in Trump's fight to block documents from the Jan. 6 committee

Now that a federal appeals court has temporarily blocked the transfer of former President Donald Trump's White House documents to the Jan. 6 select committee, what might come next?

Well, there are a few possible implications and options, CNN writes.

For starters — Trump has claimed the Jan. 6 investigation to be a partisan exercise, one that fails to supersede what he believes is his executive privilege over certain documents locked up in the National Archives. In what was good news for him, a three-judge panel on Thursday agreed to halt any transfer of documents while considering Trump's forthcoming executive privilege-related appeal, for which oral arguments have now been set for Nov. 30.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

As part of his ongoing circumvention strategy, Trump appears to be trying to "draw out the process as long as humanly possible: have arguments in the appeals court, then at the Supreme Court if necessary," CNN writes. He used similar techniques to keep the House off his tax records. This "forthcoming appeal" — during which the documents will not be handed over — will begin with consideration from another three-judge panel and go from there.

If he loses, Trump can request a full appeals court review of the case, which would just eat up more time in the case, if approved. He could also then take the issue to the Supreme Court, should he decline the aforementioned route.

There, writes CNN, the case would "likely go through the same procedure, but through the court's 'shadow docket,' where the justices often — but don't always — move quickly."