The ruling – issued late Sunday by Trump-appointed Judge Timothy Kelly of the District of Columbia – is a significant victory for the House of Representatives amid many ongoing lawsuits in which investigators are still trying to gather details about Trump’s efforts. to cancel the elections in 2020
In the 53-page statement, Kelly signed on from the House of Representatives committee, while rejecting several arguments that Republicans and witnesses in the Trump administration have tried to make in court, arguing that the group was not properly formed or did not seek appropriate information.
“The RNC claims that the elected commission does not have the proper authorization to exercise investigative power on behalf of the Chamber … But for several reasons, especially given the Chamber’s own reading of the authorizing resolution, the Court cannot agree,” Kelly wrote.
He stressed the importance of this case, calling it “an extremely rare spectacle of a congressional committee that calls for the minutes of one of the two major political parties in our country.”
However, the House panel will not immediately receive Republican marketing information. Kelly is temporarily blocking the transmission of data to the Chamber until at least May 5, so the RNC has a chance to appeal.
The Chamber’s selection committee first requested data on RNC’s marketing emails in late February, and the RNC filed a lawsuit in March to block the transmission of its information. House of Representatives investigators said they wanted to look at back data on hundreds of emails from the Trump and RNC campaigns to their supporters from November 3, 2020 to January 6, 2021, as the emails suggest the election results were deceived and demanded donations, according to court records.
The house is trying to find out who worked on the email campaigns, how successful they were, and how marketing software company Salesforce reviewed and analyzed Trump’s January 5 and 6 rallies and communicated with GOP officials, according to court records.
The judge noted that the data in the hands of Salesforce will not reveal major secrets of the internal work of the Republican Party of the House of Representatives.
“Defendants at home do not seek and Salesforce does not provide any disaggregated information about any of the donors, volunteers or recipients of RNC emails, including personal information of any person. In addition, even RNC’s own confidential information, which is undoubtedly disputed, is relatively narrow in scope, “Kelly wrote.
The House of Representatives Election Commission continues to seek evidence and witnesses related to the events that led to the riot. Democratic MP Benny Thompson announced last week that the committee will hold eight hearings in June, which will be “a mix of some high-profile hearings and some regular” hearings. Former President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani is expected to appear before the commission this month after months of talks between lawmakers and the former mayor of New York, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Paula Reed, Annie Grayer, Ryan Nobles, Daniela Diaz and Zachary Cohen of CNN contributed to this report.
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