A set of potentially juicy emails from President Trump’s disbanded voter fraud commission will likely never see the light of day, due to an appeals court decision issued Friday.
The Trump administration is not required to turn over certain emails from the defunct commission to a Democratic commissioner who sued for them, an appeals court said.
While the commissioner’s lawsuit has largely been successful in getting him access to the documents and commission work he said was withheld from him, there has continued to be a dispute over a set of those emails.
Specifically, the administration has resisted handing over to the ex-commissioner, Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap, emails other members of the panel sent to the administration staff organizing the panel about potential commissioners.
A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit reversed the decision of a district judge ordering that those emails be produced.
“Private emails between Executive Branch officials and individuals who served as commissioners about potential additional commissioners are quite distinct from these examples of documents about the Commission’s ongoing, substantive work,” the appellate court said.