John Eastman, the lawyer who worked with former President Trump to overturn the result of the 2020 election, failed in an effort to block lawmakers from getting hold of thousands of his university emails.
Instead, a federal judge indicated on Monday that he was likely to reject Eastman's attempt to halt a subpoena issued by the House January 6 committee - and ordered the two sides to begin the process of handing over information.
'The Court expects that the parties will work together with the urgency that this case requires,' said Judge David Carter in Santa Ana, California.
It came after the House select committee probing last year's attack on the U.S. Capitol issued a subpoena to Chapman University for Eastman's emails.
Investigators see the conservative law professor - a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas - as a key figure in the Trump effort to reject the election results.
He authored memos outlining how the then president could overturn the outcome if Vice President Mike Pence refused to accept the electoral college results - what lawmakers see as the roadmap for a constitutional coup.
Conservative lawyer John Eastman appeared alongside President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani at the Stop the Steal rally in Washington, D.C., on the day thousands of Trump supporters marched on the U.S. Capitol
Investigators believe Eastman's memo's were central to Trump's strategy to persuade Vice President Mike Pence to reject congressional certification of the 2020 election
In the event, Pence refused to bow to Trump's power and certified the electoral college results showing the Joe Biden was the winner of the 2020 election
The committee directed Chapman University to turn over more than 19,000 emails relating to his work for Trump.
During a court hearing on Monday, a lawyer for Eastman admitted
