Biden rejects Trump’s request to withhold documents from House committee investigating Jan. 6 attack
Trump responded with a letter of his own Friday that formally claimed executive privilege over about 50 documents requested by the select committee.
At a White House briefing, press secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden decision reflected the gravity of the attack.
“The president’s dedicated to ensuring that something like that could never happen again, which is why the administration is cooperating with ongoing investigations,” Psaki said. “The 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.”
In his letter to the National Archives on Friday, Trump argued that some records requested by the committee “contain information subject to executive privilege, including the presidential communications and deliberative process privileges.”
Trump also makes a more sweeping claim to “protective assertion of constitutionally based privilege with respect to all additional records” that were requested.
“In cases like this, where Congress has declined to grant sufficient time to conduct a full review, there is a longstanding bipartisan tradition of protective assertions of executive privilege designed to ensure the ability to make a final privilege assertion, if necessary, over some or all of the requested material,” Trump writes.
Biden’s decision on Friday came after former White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon told the House committee that he cannot comply with the panel’s sweeping request for documents and testimony.
But the committee said two other Trump advisers — former chief of staff Mark Meadows and national security aide Kash Patel — are “engaging with the committee,” despite President Trump’s requests that they cite executive privilege for matters having to do with presidential decision-making.
“While Mr. Meadows and Mr. Patel are, so far, engaging with the Select Committee, Mr. Bannon has indicated that he will try to hide behind vague references to privileges of the former President,” the committee’s leaders said in a joint statement issued Friday afternoon.
Bannon’s lawyer, Robert Costello, said he had no immediate comment on the statement from the commitee’s leaders.
“The Select Committee fully expects all of these witnesses to comply with our demands for both documents and deposition testimony … 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,” said the statement signed by Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).
In a letter sent to the committee, Costello noted that Trump’s attorney recently asked Bannon to defy the lawmakers’ request for documents or information, citing executive privilege, the doctrine cited by presidents to protect access to notes and communications related to holding the office.
“It is therefore clear to us that since the executive privileges belong to President Trump and he has, through his counsel, announced his intention to assert those privileges … we must accept his direction and honor his invocation of executive privilege,” Costello wrote Thursday, the deadline for responding to subpoena requests.
The committee had also requested interviews and documents from Scavino, and it was not clear midday Friday how he would respond. A committee spokesman declined to discuss the status of Scavino’s response to the subpoena. Published reports suggested the panel was having difficulty locating Scavino.
The response from Bannon is likely to set off a battle in the courts over congressional subpoena power in the face of objections from a former president.
On Capitol Hill, members of the Jan. 6 committee are urging a tough response to those refusing to cooperate with the inquiry.
“This is a matter of the utmost seriousness, and we need to consider the full panoply of enforcement sanctions available to us,” said Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.), a constitutional law professor who sits on the select committee. “And that means criminal contempt citations, civil contempt citations and the use of Congress’s own inherent contempt powers.”
Trump’s legal team argued in a letter sent to the four former officials earlier this week that records and testimony related to Jan. 6 are protected “from disclosure by the executive and other privileges, including among others the presidential communications, deliberative process, and attorney-client privileges.” The letter was first reported by Politico.
Costello’s letter notes that Bannon will comply with any court decisions that resolve disputed claims about executive privilege or attorney-client privilege.
In refusing to immediately comply with the committee’s request, Costello cited a letter he received from Trump attorney Justin Clark. The bipartisan panel is investigating the storming of the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob trying to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral-college win, an attack that resulted in five deaths and left 140 law enforcement officers injured.
Trump has been critical of the House committee’s Jan. 6 investigation.
Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich said in a statement that the “outrageously broad records request … lacks both legal precedent and legislative merit.”
“Executive privilege will be defended, not just on behalf of President Trump and his administration, but also on behalf of the Office of the President of the United States and the future of our nation,” Budowich added.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment