The White House announced Friday that Biden would not block certain documents from the National Archives from being passed to the Congress Committee. Trump absolutely wants to prevent this.
“The documents are records of the White House from the era of Trump,” said spokeswoman Jen Psaki. The ex-president insists on the so-called executive privilege. This is the president’s prerogative to withhold certain information from Congress or the courts.
Five dead in the Capitol storm
Supporters of Trumps had flooded the seat of the US Congress in Washington on January 6th. Five people were killed, including a police officer. Trump had to face impeachment proceedings for the attack because he had previously incited his supporters in a speech. However, at the end of the trial, the Republican was acquitted. The committee in the US House of Representatives is to investigate the background to the attack on the Capitol. The establishment of the investigative body has already been the subject of fierce partisan clashes between Democrats and Republicans.
Spokeswoman Psaki said Democrat Biden’s government was cooperating with the committee. The committee had requested documents to investigate the Capitol attack from the National Archives. There is a procedure in which the former president has a deadline to exercise executive privilege, said Psaki. The current president then had a deadline to review this application. For a first set of documents, Biden had come to the conclusion that secrecy could not be invoked. “We believe that it is not political to ensure that the events of January 6th do not happen again,” said Psaki. You will now make new decisions every time you have to ask for documents.
“Do not cooperate with committee”
Trump reacted angrily and accused the Democrats of using Congress to persecute political opponents. These wanted to silence his movement. He won’t let himself be intimidated. Previously, there had been reports that Trump was trying to prevent former confidants from testifying before the congressional committee investigating the storm on the US Capitol. In a letter that was available to the Politico portal and the Washington Post, among others, a Trump attorney urged men not to cooperate with the committee.
The committee had summoned former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, the then Chief of Staff of the White House, Mark Meadows, Trump’s social media chief Dan Scavino and a former Defense Department official for mid-October. Certain documents were also requested from the four men. The letter from Trump’s attorney also stated that these documents would fall under executive privilege. Trump is ready to defend this right in court.
No documents, no statement
The congressional committee announced on Friday that the former Trump strategist Bannon had indicated that he wanted to hide behind “vague references to privileges of the former president”. The “New York Times” previously reported, citing a letter from Bannon’s attorney, that Bannon’s attorney would not transmit any documents or make any statements as long as open questions were not resolved. In the letter, the lawyer also invoked the executive privilege claimed by Trump.
Bannon is one of the most influential voices in the ultra-conservative camp of US politics. The co-founder of the arch-conservative Internet platform “Breitbart” had joined the Trump team before the end of the 2016 election campaign and then took over the leadership of the election campaign. After Trump moved into the White House, Bannon became Trump’s chief strategist, his influence has been described as tremendous. In the summer of 2017, Bannon had to take his hat off under pressure from Trump.
Criminal charges for disregard of Congress possible
Ex-Chief of Staff Meadows and former Defense Department official Kash Patel, however, would work with the committee, said chairman Bennie G. Thompson. At the same time, he threatened anyone who resisted a subpoena with criminal charges for disregarding Congress. The committee had recently summoned several organizers of rallies on January 6th. “The committee of inquiry expects all of these witnesses to comply with our demands for documents and testimony,” it said. He would not be deterred by those who tried to obstruct the investigation.
