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INTERN A TION AL

White House formally rejects Trump’s request to

protect specific documents from being

given to January 6 investigators

(CNN)The White House formally rejected the latest request by former
President Donald Trump to assert executive privilege to shield from
lawmakers a subset of documents that has been requested by the
House committee investigating January 6, and set an aggressive
timeline for their release.

The latest letter came after the Biden administration informed
the National Archives on Friday that it would not assert executive
privilege over a tranche of documents related to January 6 from the
Trump White House. When the White House sent its first letter last
week, the former President had not formally submitted his objections
yet. The latest response from the White House counsel is more of a
technicality in response to the request from Trump regarding the
subset of documents, according to a person familiar, reaffirming the
decision already made by President Joe Biden not to assert executive The committee asked for "all documents and communications within
privilege. the White House" on that day, including call logs, schedules and
meetings with top officials and outside advisers, including Rudy
The letter sent Friday, and released on Wednesday, from White Giuliani.
House counsel Dana Remus to Archivist of the United States David
Ferriero requests that the documents be released "30 days after To date, the former President has not been as aggressive legally in
your notification to the former President, absent any intervening trying to assert that executive privilege as his public statements might
court order." After that decision was reported, Trump wrote to the suggest and the White House's announcement indicates he will likely
National Archives, objecting to the release of certain documents to have trouble preventing the initial batch of documents from being
the committee on the grounds of executive privilege. released to the committee.

In the letter released Wednesday, Remus wrote: "President Biden That said, Trump can still attempt to protect his records by suing
has considered the former President's assertion, and I have engaged relevant agencies -- assuming he can pull together enough legal
in additional consultations with the Office of Legal Counsel at the firepower for a pricey and complex court battle.
Department of Justice. For the same reasons described in [sic] earlier
letter, the President maintains his conclusion that an assertion of If Trump files a lawsuit, that could, at very least, slow down the
executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, process of handing over the documents, but the former President has
and therefore is not justified as to any of the documents provided to only a limited amount of time to take that step, according to Deborah
the White House on September 8, 2021." Pearlstein, a constitutional law professor at Cardozo Law School
"Accordingly, President Biden does not uphold the former President's who's an expert on presidential powers.
assertion of privilege."
Legal experts say Biden has the ultimate say over whether these "If the sitting President has said he's not going to assert privilege, then
documents are covered by executive privilege, and considering that there's a certain amount of time (before) the documents then have to
the committee is led by members of Biden's party, Trump's power to be released unless the former President succeeds in getting a court
sway the outcome is an open question. order, an injunction, for example, prohibiting their release," she told
The House select committee has launched a sweeping investigation CNN last week. "That would require a pretty significant ruling by a
into January 6. As part of that, the panel has sent requests for federal court."
information to a number of federal agencies, including the National "It's not impossible but all of this is now under a ticking clock," she
Archives, the custodian of the Trump administration White House added, noting we could see activity "if the former President and his
records. team are aggressive legally, sooner rather than later."

@BBC @CNN International @euronews

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