Joe Biden has again refused to assert executive privilege over documents the former President has sought to keep away from January 6 investigators
“President Biden has considered the former President’s assertion, and I have engaged in consultations with the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice,” Remus wrote.
“President Biden 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 the documents provided to the White House on September 16, 2021, and September 23, 2021. Accordingly, President Biden does not uphold the former President’s assertion of privilege.”
Remus quoted her earlier letter to the National Archives highlighting the “extraordinary events” that day. The top White House lawyer also noted that Biden instructs the National Archives to provide the documents to the committee 30 days after notifying Trump, “absent any intervening court order.”
During a White House news briefing at the time, press secretary Jen Psaki said that “the President has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not warranted for the first set of documents from the Trump White House that have been provided to us by the National Archives.”
“As we’ve said previously, this will be an ongoing process and this is just the first set of documents,” she said. “And we will evaluate questions of privilege on a case-by-case basis, but the President has also been clear that 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.”
Legal experts say Biden has the ultimate say over whether these documents are covered by executive privilege, and considering the committee is led by members of Biden’s party, Trump’s power to sway the outcome is an open question.
This story has been updated with additional details Monday.
CNN’s Evan Perez, Zachary Cohen and Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.
