Sources familiar with the matter told NBC News that some of the former President Donald Trump's closest aides, including ex-chief of staff Mark Meadows, must testify before the grand jury on his involvement in trying to overturn the 2020 election.
The sources said that former advisers like Dan Scavino and Stephen Miller, the former director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe and ex-national security adviser Robert O'Brien were all in favor of executive privilege, and the former director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe and the ex-national security adviser Beryl Howell, were not allowed by the US District Court Judge Beryl Howell.
The sources said that others ordered to testify in the Jan. 6 investigation were Ken Cucinelli, a former DHS official, former White House aides Nick Luna and John McEntee.
A Trump spokesman didn't respond to a request for comment on the judge's order.
Trump is expected to appeal the sealed ruling. A criminal investigation can usually overcome executive privilege, as it did when the Supreme Court forced President Richard Nixon to hand over tapes of his Oval Office conversations.
Howell, whose ruling was first reported by ABC News, had overseen legal challenges to special counsel Jack Smith's dual probes into Trump's involvement in the Jan. 6 riot and his handling of documents with classification markings found at Mar-a-Lago until her term as chief judge ended last week. The case in Washington is now headed up by her successor, Chief Judge James Jeb Boasberg.
The decision on Trump's former aides, which was filed under seal because of the active grand jury investigation, was not Howell's only major ruling before she wrapped up her post. In a separate decision last week, she ordered Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran to testify in the case of classified documents under the crime fraud exception, meaning he could not cite attorney-client privilege to answer questions from investigators.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the cases being investigated by Smith.
Most of the former aides named in Howell's order testified before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot, but Meadows and Scavino, who ran Trump's social media accounts, both snubbed subpoenas for testimony from the panel.
The Justice Department sent them to the House for a criminal contempt of Congress charge. In June of this year, the Justice Department announced that it was not going to prosecute Meadows and Scavino.
Meadows fought to testify before a grand jury in Georgia in an effort to overturn the election results in the state. Meadows eventually testified and lost his court challenges.