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Former President Donald Trump on Friday vowed to “take all necessary and appropriate measures” to protect his presidential records from an “extremely broad” request from the House committee investigating the Capitol riot – the in place of a potential court battle after President Biden said the Democrat-led committee should get the documents.
There is uncertainty as to the end of a court case due to the rarity of such disputes over the files of former presidents, which are held by the National Archives.
Trump wrote in a letter to the Archives that a first slice of documents “potentially running into the millions” cannot be released to the committee due to legal protections “including, but not limited to, presidential communications, the deliberative process and attorney-client privileges.
A legal battle could delay or defeat the committee’s request.
Biden’s White House has said that the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6 by a savage mob of Trump supporters that disrupted the certification of Electoral College results is a historically unique event that requires transparency .
“The president has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not warranted for the first set of Trump White House documents provided to us by the National Archives,” the House press secretary said on Friday. Blanche, Jen Psaki, at her daily briefing.
“As we have said previously, this will be an ongoing process and this is only the first set of documents, and we will assess questions of privilege on a case-by-case basis.”
Psaki added: “The President also made it clear that he believes it is of the utmost importance for Congress and the American people to have a full understanding of the events of this day to prevent them from happening again. . “
Trump addressed a large crowd near the White House and claimed the election was ‘stolen’ shortly before some of his supporters crossed Capitol Hill and searched for Vice President Mike Pence, who, they hoped, would reject Biden’s voters from the main swing states.
An analysis of a video by the Wall Street Journal found that members of the Proud Boys group were key players in sparking clashes with police, including helping to collapse an outer perimeter while Trump was still speaking.
Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt was shot and killed during the chaos and three other Trump supporters have died from medical emergencies. United States Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died of a stroke after battling rioters and several police officers and at least one accused rioter later died by suicide.
In a statement Friday, Trump said: “The radical left Democrats have attempted the witch hunt in RUSSIA, they have attempted bogus dismissals, and now they are again trying to use Congress to persecute their political opponents. Their demands are not based on law or reality – it is just a game for these politicians. “
Trump added: “Democrats are drunk on power, but this dangerous attack on our Constitution and important legal precedent will not work. This committee’s bogus investigation is no more about January 6 than the Russian hoax was about Russia. Instead, it’s about using the power of government to silence “Trump” and our greatest achievement of all time, Make America Great Again. “
In a lengthy analysis for the legal blog Lawfare, former Justice Department attorney Jonathan Shaub wrote this year that former presidents’ rights to the documents are uncertain. He wrote on murky legal ground in the context of Trump’s impeachment trial for allegedly inciting a riot.
“If Trump attempts to assert executive privilege in the next impeachment trial and Biden refuses to support it, it would be the first time, to my knowledge, that a former president has attempted to assert executive privilege against Congress unlike to the wishes of the current president, ”he wrote.
“Nothing in [court precedent from the case Nixon v. Administrator of General Services] or any other judicial decision obliges a particular result when such a conflict exists. There are also no relevant precedents in Congress.
Some Trump associates have also indicated that they will fight attempts by the House committee to subpoena them.
Former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon, who was not a White House employee at the time of the riot, claimed he would not comply with the panel’s summons – which urged the committee to say it would not rule out “advancing criminal contempt of referral to Congress.” . “
“While the select committee welcomes the good faith engagement with witnesses seeking to cooperate with our investigation, we will not allow any witnesses to defy a legal subpoena or attempt to miss the allotted time, and we will promptly consider doing so. ” advance criminal contempt of referral to Congress. President Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Vice President Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said in a statement.
Kash Patel, a former Trump aide and lawyer who was working at the Pentagon at the time of the riot, said in a statement he was not commenting on what he was going to do.
“I can confirm that I responded to the summons in a timely manner. Beyond that, I will not comment on my confidential relationship with the Committee, ”Patel said. “But I can assure you that I will continue to speak the truth and stay focused on Fight With Kash to help any American who has been censored and distorted online.”
Struggles over executive privilege in the past have cast doubt on the relevance of Congress’ demands. For example, Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton never testified in Trump’s first impeachment trial due to the lack of a swift judicial review of the case.
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