Jamie Raskin warns Trump Supreme Court won’t save him

Comes as courts rule against former president’s attempts to block information on Capitol riot

Democratic congressman Jamie Raskin, a member of the select committee investigating the Capitol riot on 6 January, warned former president Donald Trump that the Supreme Court would not help him stonewall information.

Mr Raskin’s words come after a federal appeals court ruled against the former president’s request for an injunction against the House select committee. Mr Trump had sought to block lawmakers from retrieving records of communications his inner circle made leading up to the deadly riot.

“The current president said that the people can have all the information they need,” Mr Raskin, who served as the lead impeachment manager earlier this year for Mr Trump’s second impeachment, told The Independent.

The court’s action likely sets up a legal battle with the Supreme Court, where Mr Trump appointed three out of the nine justices.

“Right now every court that has ruled on it has rejected Donald Trump’s attempt to override President Biden’s decision to give the January 6 committee the information,” Mr Raskin said. “There would be no reason for the Supreme Court to depart from any of the legal analysis we’ve seen before.”

The Biden administration has previously refused to assert executive privilege over the materials that the select committee has requested, saying in September that “an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified.”

The news comes also as Mr Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows filed a lawsuit against the committee, which his lawyer said seeks to “invalidate and prohibit the enforcement of two overly broad and unduly burdensome subpoenas.” He had previously cooperated with the committee, turned over documents and agreed to appear voluntarily, but his attorney said that the committee’s actions made that “untenable.”