By Kyle Cheney, Josh Gerstein
POLITICO
November 4, 2021
Most Americans haven’t heard of Beryl Howell and Tanya Chutkan. Yet these two federal judges are poised to help deliver troves of hidden information to congressional investigators over the next few weeks that could dramatically reshape the public’s understanding of the Jan. 6 insurrection.
On Thursday, Chutkan, a 2014 appointee of President Barack Obama, will weigh former President Donald Trump’s effort to shield his White House records from the Jan. 6 select committee. Her ruling there could help lawmakers obtain call records, visitor logs and highly sensitive files from Trump’s senior aides.
In recent days, Howell, the chief of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., and a 2010 Obama appointee, has implicitly encouraged Jan. 6 defendants to cooperate with congressional investigators. Last week, she praised a convicted rioter, Leonard Gruppo, for his decision to be interviewed by the select committee last month.