Jan. 6 document fight intensifies
Biden won’t invoke executive privilege
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden is not asserting executive privilege over a tranche of documents sought by a House committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, setting up a showdown with former President Donald Trump, who has pledged to try to block records from his time in the White House from being turned over to investigators.
In a letter to the Archivist of the United States, White House counsel Dana Remus writes that Biden has determined that invoking executive privilege “is not in the best interests of the United States.” The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter Friday, which was first reported by NBC News.
In August, the House committee investigating the January insurrection at the U.S. Capitol asked for a trove of records, including communication within the White House under Trump and information about planning and funding for rallies held in Washington. Among those events was a rally near the White House featuring remarks by Trump, who egged on a crowd of thousands before loyalists stormed the Capitol.
In the letter, Remus writes that the documents reviewed “shed light on events within the White House on and about Jan. 6 and bear on the Select Committee’s need to understand the facts underlying the most serious attack on the operations of the Federal Government since the Civil War.”
The incumbent president has the final say unless a court orders the Archives to take a different action. Trump has not formally sought to invoke executive privilege over the documents, though that action is expected soon.
Officials also expect him to try to take legal action to block the release of the documents.
A lawyer for Steve Bannon says the former White House aide won’t comply with a House committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol because Trump is asserting executive privilege to block demands for testimony and documents.
Two other witnesses subpoenaed by the panel, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former Pentagon aide Kash Patel, are “engaging” with the committee, according to its Democratic chairman, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, and Republican vice chairwoman, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming. Thompson and Cheney issued a statement Friday after a deadline for document production had passed.
“Though the Select Committee welcomes good faith engagement with witnesses seeking to cooperate with our investigation, we will not allow any witness to defy a lawful subpoena or attempt to run out the clock, and we will swiftly consider advancing a criminal contempt of Congress referral,” the two lawmakers said.
A spokesman for the panel declined to comment on the status of a fourth witness, former Trump communications aide Dan Scavino.
Bannon’s move sets the stage for a likely clash with House Democrats who are investigating the roles of Trump and his allies in the run-up to the riot.
Bannon’s refusal to comply, and Trump’s vow to litigate the testimony, will mean certain delays in the panel’s probe. But members of the committee, several of whom worked as prosecutors on Trump’s two impeachments, were prepared for the possibility and have repeatedly threatened charging witnesses with contempt.
Spokespeople for Trump have not returned messages seeking comment. Trump said in a statement last month that he would “fight the Subpoenas on Executive Privilege and other grounds, for the good of our Country.”