Joe Biden denies executive privilege for documents regarding Capitol riots

President Joe Biden will let a House committee have access
to a tranche of documents for its investigation into the January 6 Capitol
riots, in a move that will anger former President Donald Trump, who has pledged
to not let records from his time in the White House go to investigators.

Biden has determined that invoking executive privilege in
this instance “is not in the best interests of the United States,” White
House counsel Dana Remus said in a letter to the Archivist of the United States.
This comes days after Trump lawyers sought to block the testimony of former
Trump officials to the House committee citing executive privilege.

Remus says in the letter that the documents reviewed
“shed 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.”

The House committee investigating the Capitol riots asked
for the records in August. The records that the committee sought include
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.

Copies of the documents responsive to the request were
turned over to the Biden White House and Trump’s lawyers for review for
potential executive privilege concerns in accordance with federal law and the
executive order governing presidential records.

The committee’s 10-page request to the Archives seeks
“All documents and communications within the White House on January 6,
2021,” related to Trump’s close advisers and family members, the rally at
the nearby Ellipse, and Trump’s Twitter feed. It asks for his specific movements
on that day and communications, if any, from the White House Situation Room.
Also sought are all documents related to claims of election fraud, as well as
Supreme Court decisions on the topic.

Biden’s decision affects only the initial batch of documents
reviewed by the White House. Press secretary Jen Psaki said subsequent
determinations would be made on a case-by-case basis.

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.

Trump is expected to take legal action to block the release
of the documents, which if granted, would mark a dramatic expansion of the
unwritten executive power. Trump will have an uphill battle, as courts have
traditionally left questions of executive privilege up to the current White
House occupant — though the former president’s challenges could delay the
committee’s investigation.

(With inputs from the Associated Press)