Judge Tanya Chutkan, who has been presiding over the case regarding whether former President Donald Trump can claim executive privilege in the House investigation of his role in the January 6 insurrection, has finally issued her ruling.

After President Joe Biden declined to assert executive privilege over the documentation from the National Archives that Trump wanted to be withheld, the ex-president sued to keep it from being released. His delusions of grandeur that began with his claim that Article II of the Constitution gave him the authority to do “whatever” he wanted as president apparently extended into his post-presidency.

In her 39-page ruling, Judge Chutkan wrote that “The (executive) privilege is not absolute. It exists for the benefit of the Republic, not any individual.” Trump’s lawyers failed to make the case that Trump had any right to claim it after leaving office, but Chutkan shut down the concept that it could be used to shield this material even if it were somehow determined that he did have such a right after his term expired.

President Biden is ultimately the only person who can claim executive privilege at this point, Judge Chutkan said.

[Trump] does not acknowledge the deference owed to the incumbent President’s judgment. His position that he may override the express will of the executive branch appears to be premised on the notion that his executive power ‘exists in perpetuity.’ But Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

That seems like a fact that Trump should try and get ingrained in his feathery orange skull. One hopes that there will never be a time when he enjoys executive privilege again, but at least for now, he absolutely does not.

Federal Judge Slams Trump’s Attempt to Thwart Riot Committee: ‘Presidents are Not Kings and Plaintiff is Not President’

Ironically, the former president that Trump least liked to be compared to, Richard Nixon, provided the basis for most of Judge Chutkan’s ruling. She cited the 1978 Presidential Records Act that was passed after the Watergate scandal that resulted in Nixon’s resignation. That law made it so that presidential records are public and available in the National Archives.

Trump never seemed to believe he worked for the public to begin with.

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