It is sometimes hard to imagine what goes through the minds of lawyers who actually accept money in exchange for trying to defend Donald Trump. It’s not a job any normal lawyer would want. Constantly forced to come up with increasingly ridiculous arguments, Trump attorneys run the risk of becoming literal laughingstocks in the legal community.

Avoiding that outcome would be much easier if they simply refused to take Trump’s cases. But somebody has to defend him, we suppose.

On Thursday, Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan absolutely punctured Team Trump’s argument as to why evidence in the investigation regarding his involvement in the January 6 riots should be withheld under “executive privilege” claims.

His legal team has long argued that House members seeking the documents, which we have reported on extensively here, have no “legislative purpose” in uncovering the evidence. They claim that lawmakers are seeking partisan revenge against a president whose policies they disagreed with.

In fact, they largely rely on a previous ruling — Trump v. Mazars — in which the Supreme Court ruled that “courts must take into account separation of powers in resolving disputes over congressional subpoenas seeking the personal information of the president, and set out a number of factors to consider in evaluating the worthiness of the subpoena.”

But one big thing has changed since Trump “won” that case, not least of which is that Donald Trump is no longer president and no therefore no longer has any claim to executive privilege.

Although Judge Chutkan agreed that House lawmakers had cast a wide net in some instances seeking information, she asked Trump’s lawyers a simple question:

Isn’t it appropriate that Congress may not know what legislation or how much legislation is required until they complete their fact-finding process?

That’s really the only question that matters. As Judge Chutkan rebuffed Trump’s claims of immunity, she asserted that there was certainly a legislative purpose to seeking the evidence — the fact that the riot took place where legislation occurs.

The Jan. 6 riots happened in the Capitol. That is literally Congress’s house.

No ruling was issued today, but it is forthcoming.

The opinions expressed by contributors and/or content partners are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of LeftScoop.news. Contact us for guidelines on submitting your own commentary.