President Joe Biden has, once again, overruled former President Donald Trump’s executive privilege claim regarding documents sought by the House committee that is “investigating” the Capitol protests of January 6, 2021.
Fox News reports that Biden has now ordered the National Archives to give the House committee White House visitor logs that date back to January 2021.
The latest
Dana Remus, one of Biden’s lawyers, sent a letter to the National Archives this week giving the order to hand over the logs to the House committee. In that letter, Remus provides the rationale behind Biden’s decision to overrule Trump’s executive privilege claim.
Remus wrote:
President Biden has considered the former President’s claims, and I have engaged in consultations with the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice. 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, as to these records and portions of records.
Remus went on to cite a policy, that he says has been practiced by former administrations, of “voluntarily” disclosing, every month, the visitor logs being requested by the House committee. He claimed that this supports Biden’s decision to overrule Trump’s executive privilege claim.
“As practice under that policy demonstrates, preserving the confidentiality of this type of record generally is not necessary to protect long-term institutional interests of the Executive Branch,” Remus wrote.
He, therefore, concludes, “President Biden does not uphold the former President’s assertions of privilege.”
What now?
The National Archives has been ordered by Biden to hand over the requested visitor logs within 15 days of notifying Trump. The only thing that would prevent this is a court order.
Recently, Trump lost a legal battle at the U.S. Supreme Court in which he attempted to stop the National Archives from releasing a different set of documents requested by the House committee. It is unclear whether the U.S. Supreme Court would rule any differently concerning the visitor logs.
The visitor logs will show who visited the White House on January 6, 2021, as well as why the individuals were there. It is unclear how this would help the House committee’s “investigation.”
Reports indicate that Trump has been notified that the records will be turned over to the House committee by the National Archives on March 3.
Trump has yet to respond to the situation.
