The Biden team has signed off on sending records associated with former Vice President Mike Pence to the House committee investigating the Capitol riot, defying a push by ex-President Trump to keep certain records secret. White House counsel Dana Remus wrote to the National Archives that “[many] of the records as to which the former President has made a claim of privilege in this set of documents… were communications concerning the former Vice President’s responsibilities as President of the Senate in certifying the vote of presidential electors on January 6, 2021.” Officials at the National Archives are planning to send these materials to the riot panel by March 3, unless a court intervenes. Although Trump could head back to court to try and fight the release of these items, he’s already lost on a similar issue.
JANUARY 6 SELECT COMMITTEE
• Has heard from more than 475 witnesses
• Has received 60,000 pages of records
• Is in possession of 700+ pages from National Archives that Donald Trump tried to keep hidden
(via committee aide)
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) February 2, 2022
The U.S. Supreme Court, where three of his own picks currently serve, recently rejected an argument from Trump to keep other records from his administration from the committee because of executive privilege concerns. As the actual current chief executive, President Joe Biden has a say in any claims of executive privilege over official records along these lines, and he’s consistently declined to assert such a claim. Regarding the Pence records that are at issue, Remus said they’re “not subject to claims of the presidential communications privilege.”
Trump-backed candidates are lagging in fundraising:
Key Trump-backed Republican challengers were heavily outraised by their Republican primary opponents late last year. https://t.co/xaukijx1Do
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 2, 2022
Remus wrote at an earlier juncture that Biden “determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified as to any of the documents” that were under consideration, observing that the “conduct under investigation extends far beyond typical deliberations concerning the proper discharge of the President’s constitutional responsibilities.” She added: “[Constitutional] protections of executive privilege should not be used to shield, from Congress or the public, information that reflects a clear and apparent effort to subvert the Constitution itself.”
NBC News: Ex-Trump DOJ official Jeffrey Clark, who tried to overturn the election for Trump, is meeting with the Jan. 6 Committee. @NBCNews
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 2, 2022
The riot committee has since obtained troubling records like a draft executive order that laid out a plan for the Defense Department to seize voting machines and other election-related items for the purposes of launching a no doubt sham investigation into debunked fraud allegations. For military personnel to have essentially taken over the continuance of the electoral process in the United States would have been inescapably destructive, threatening the ability to see through the democratic process and fulfill the duly documented will of the people. As for Pence’s records, multiple associates of the ex-vice president have already testified to the riot panel; those individuals include Pence’s former chief of staff Marc Short and his former legal counsel Greg Jacob. Overall, investigators have heard from over 475 witnesses, according to ABC — meaning that Trump’s efforts to upend the probe aren’t exactly working.
Breaking Politico: In the final days of his presidency, Trump seriously considered issuing a blanket pardon for all participants in the Jan. 6 riot, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.https://t.co/1Zap1AXzE8
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 2, 2022
