Biden authorizes another batch of Trump-era documents to Jan. 6 committee
President Biden declined to assert executive privilege over another batch of Trump-era White House documents, authorizing the National Archives to turn the documents over to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
In a letter released by the Archives on Wednesday, David Ferriero, archivist of the United States, wrote that the documents will be delivered to the committee on April 28 as the panel nears live public hearings slated for May and June.
“The President has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified,” Dana Remus, White House counsel, wrote in a letter.
The letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Hill, reiterates Biden’s commitment to err on the side of transparency in regard to the investigation.
In February, Biden waived executive privilege over White House visitor logs, including those from Jan. 6.
It is unclear what information is included in the documents that will be delivered to the committee at the end of the month. Previously, former President Trump unsuccessfully attempted to assert privilege over diaries, schedules and correspondence related to Jan. 6. The Supreme Court declined his request to shield the documents from the committee in January.
Remus’s letter notes that the White House received these documents to review on Feb. 8 and was alerted of Trump’s executive privilege claim on Feb. 23.
The release comes as Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told The Washington Post on Wednesday that he expects crimes that have not yet been alleged to be in the committee’s report, which will most likely be released this summer.