White House formally rejects Trump claim of executive privilege over Jan. 6 docs

The White House has formally rejected an attempt by former President Trump to assert executive privilege over a set of documents requested by a House panel investigating the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol.

White House counsel Dana Remus, in a letter to the National Archives dated Oct. 8 but released on Wednesday, said President Biden considered Trump’s request to assert executive privilege and determined it “is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified as to any of the documents provided to the White House on September 8, 2021.”

“Accordingly, President Biden does not uphold the former President’s assertion of privilege,” Remus wrote.

The National Archives as a result will be required to turn over the documents as part of the investigation into Jan. 6 barring any legal intervention.

Trump sent a letter to the National Archives last Friday saying he wanted to assert executive privilege to prevent the committee from obtaining more than 40 of the documents it requested, saying he had determined the records “contain information subject to executive privilege, including presidential communications and deliberate process privileges.”

The Biden White House last week ordered presidential record keepers to release an initial trove of Trump-era documents to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, arguing unique circumstances compel their disclosure.

The letter from Remus was a formal part of the process required to reject Trump’s request.

Press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters last week that the administration would “evaluate claims of privilege on a case by case basis, but the president has also been clear 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.”

A House select committee is investigating the events surrounding the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, where hundreds of pro-Trump rioters overwhelmed law enforcement and stormed the complex to halt the certification of Biden’s electoral college victory.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify what request the White House denied.