Trump tried to make the January 6 Committee figuratively drag him across the House floor until it slowed to a halt. Obstruction by legal means is his most-used scheme. But Democrats on the Committee have his number now, and he will not like what they have done.
After the ex-president sued to prevent the Committee from seeing what was in WH documents, he nonsensically argued that its members had no right to investigate. Any subpoena they handed to him was worthless. Oh, and just for some icing on his suit, he claimed everything was covered by executive privilege.
NBC News acquired a letter from White House Counsel Dana Remus to the National Archives. In it, she said that holding the former president’s records locked in the archive was “not in the best interests of the United States.”
Remus formally informed the Archives that President Joe Biden would allow Trump’s additional materials stored there to go to the Select Committee. In other words, he would not respect the ex-president’s claims of executive privilege. Remus wrote:
‘Accordingly, President Biden does not uphold the former President’s assertion of privilege.’
The letter from Remus continued, as CNN reported:
‘President Biden has considered the former President’s assertion, and I have engaged in consultations with the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice.’
‘President Biden has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified, as to the documents provided to the White House on September 16, 2021, and September 23, 2021.’
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was on duty in the press room talking to reporters. She had this to say about Trump’s request for the executive privilege:
‘[T]he President has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not warranted for the first set of documents from the Trump White House that have been provided to us by the National Archives.’
‘As we’ve said previously, this will be an ongoing process and this is just the first set of documents. And we will evaluate questions of privilege on a case-by-case basis, but the President has also been clear that he believes it to be of the utmost importance for both Congress and the American people to have a complete understanding of the events of that day to prevent them from happening again.’
Two weeks ago Trump requested that President Biden block some of his records in the Archives. He wanted them to fall under his executive privilege and remain there. But after consideration, the president declined his ask. On October 8, Remus responded:
‘[S]hed light on events within the White House on and about January 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.’
Each request related to the Select Committee will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
