Hold the presses

A federal appeals court has agreed to temporarily halt delivery of presidential records to a House committee probing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

  NPR

If he can get this to the Supreme Court, he will expect them to side with him. On the other hand, he'd have a surer shot at just delaying it past the 2022 elections into the 2023 Congress when there's a very good chance of returning Republicans to power. When that happens, they will no doubt either disband the committee or run it as a sham that eventually clears Trump.

I should note that he COULD take his case directly to the Supreme Court, but that wouldn't take up more time.

"Just for the D.C. Circuit to figure out that there's no grounds for a stay, these kinds of very, very short administrative stays are not unusual," said Norm Eisen, a former House impeachment lawyer who is closely following the case.

[...]

The National Archives was due to deliver a first tranche of documents to the Democratic-led House panel on Friday at 6 p.m. ET.

[...]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said Thursday that it would grant the delay, giving its judges more time to review the case. The appeals court will hold oral arguments on Nov. 30.

[...]

Even with the appellate court setting an expedited schedule for the case, it's possible that any release of Trump White House records may not happen until next year at the earliest, said Jonathan Shaub, a former attorney at the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel who now teaches law at the University of Kentucky.

Shaub said it's possible that even after a smaller panel for the appellate court rules, Trump's legal team could ask for the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to hear the case. And from there, the case could then move to the Supreme Court.

[...]

"For him, winning is simply delaying," Shaub said. "And his challenge is to delay long enough, given the weakness of his arguments."

[...]

And on Thursday, a lawyer for another subpoenaed witness, ex-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, said he won't be able to comply, for now.

"Contrary to decades of consistent bipartisan opinions from the Justice Department that senior aides cannot be compelled by Congress to give testimony, this is the first President to make no effort whatsoever to protect presidential communications from being the subject of compelled testimony," said attorney George Terwilliger. "Mr. Meadows remains under the instructions of former President Trump to respect longstanding principles of executive privilege. It now appears the courts will have to resolve this conflict."

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE: