Written by Staff Writer, CNN
The Tuesday court hearing on the infamous January 6 request for the White House communications obtained by CNN’s “The Trump Files” was postponed until May 2.
CNN filed a motion for the court to give a stay on the deposition of former White House Counsel Don McGahn to give the administration more time to prepare for the proceedings.
McGahn had been asked to appear on Tuesday and answer questions about his involvement in the January 6 document request.
The CNN FOIA request is part of an effort to detail the first months of the Trump administration. It includes documents from the weeks immediately after President Donald Trump’s inauguration through August, when CNN ended its reporting partnership with the White House.
The court hearing on the release of documents from the 2017 Trump inaugural and presidential transition has been postponed until next month, a federal judge announced on Tuesday. CNN and the White House did not specify why the hearing, originally scheduled for Tuesday, was postponed.
The news comes a day after the White House postponed a key hearing, and less than one week after the White House attorney in charge of delivering the contents of the records unexpectedly resigned, CNN confirmed.
CNN attorney Maria Cardona submitted her resignation, and the White House sent her a letter of resignation. The timing of the resignation was unexpected.
CNN reported Sunday on the documents it plans to produce. The records are due at the end of May, when CNN said it wants to finish its research and start producing a complete document release.
CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta tweeted that she had been an integral part of CNN’s effort to shed light on the earliest days of the Trump administration, and she would be sorely missed.
Reached by CNN, Cardona said “I’m handing in my resignation, which I did not know about until minutes ago. I want to thank CNN for being an amazing organization with a long tradition of fairness and balance. While I’ve served many presidents and had many high honorships, CNN is above all the finest in media.”
Cardona’s resignation from her White House job was first reported by The New York Times.
CNN had sought information and documents related to the January 6 “Trump Files” document request as part of its Trump-related reporting.
“We don’t dispute anything that CNN has requested. What they want is three months to gather it all,” Sarah Sanders, the White House deputy press secretary, said in December. “That’s the only reason they’re asking.”
CNN filed its motion for a stay on Monday, citing ongoing internal White House efforts to gather and present records and concerns about the reliability of those documents, potentially frustrating the documentary’s release.
CNN President Jeff Zucker called the data “the most comprehensive set of materials related to the Trump administration ever compiled and produced.”
On Monday, attorney Jay Sekulow took up the president’s defense in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. Sekulow, a White House lawyer who advises the president on the Russia probe, told Blitzer that President Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr. and White House adviser Don McGahn never conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.
The administration was scheduled to file its legal brief in the January 6 case on Tuesday. However, the order announcing that hearing was not filed until Tuesday.
