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On Friday, the White House formally blocked an attempt by Donald Trump to withhold congressional documents related to the Jan.6 attack on Capitol Hill when he was president of the United States.
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Press secretary Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden had authorized the National Archives, a government agency that keeps records of Trump’s time in office, to release an initial batch of documents requested by the House Select Committee. of the United States investigating the riot of January 6.
“The President has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is unwarranted for the first set of Trump White House documents provided to us by the National Archives,” Psaki said.
Crowds of Trump supporters stormed the headquarters of Congress that day in a failed attempt to prevent lawmakers from certifying the presidential victory of Democrat Joe Biden. More than 600 people now face criminal charges stemming from the event.
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Meanwhile, the Jan.6 Select Committee threatened to file criminal contempt charges against Steve Bannon, Trump’s longtime adviser who refuses to cooperate with the investigation.
“We will not allow any witnesses to challenge a subpoena or attempt to run out of time, and we will quickly consider advancing a criminal referral for contempt of Congress,” said Representatives Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney, who lead the committee.
Bannon told the committee Thursday that he would not comply with a subpoena issued last month.
Bannon’s attorney, Robert Costello, said in a letter to the committee that Bannon would refuse to comply due to Trump’s claim that he can invoke executive privilege to block Bannon’s testimony.
Executive privilege is a legal doctrine that protects the confidentiality of some communications between White House officials.
Legal experts have said that Trump, as a former president, cannot legally use executive privilege to block subpoenas issued by the select committee.
Reference-torontosun.com