Biden Orders Release of Trump White House Logs to 6 January Panel

© AP Photo / Patrick SemanskyWhite House building in Washington
White House building in Washington - Sputnik International, 1920, 16.02.2022
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Former US President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticised the 6 January House Select Committee, describing it as just another "witch hunt" orchestrated to harm him.
US President Joe Biden has rejected Donald Trump's executive privilege claims, ordering that White House visitor logs be released by the National Archives to the House Select Panel investigating the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot, according to The New York Times.
The newspaper cited White House counsel Dana Remus' letter to the National Archives as saying that Biden has determined that asserting executive privilege "is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified, as to these records and portions of records".
According to Remus, the records include "entries in visitor logs showing appointment information for individuals who were processed to enter the White House complex, including on Jan. 6, 2021".

She pointed out that while Trump earlier moved to block the visitor logs from public view, citing national security concerns, the Biden administration "voluntarily discloses such visitor logs on a monthly basis", but with some exceptions.

"The Obama administration followed the same practice. The majority of the entries over which the former president has asserted executive privilege would be publicly released under current policy", the White House counsel noted in the letter, adding that the logs should be turned over within 15 days.
The 6 January select panel was earlier in the process of obtaining records of communications between members of the Trump administration and his election campaign.
The former president tried to prevent it from happening by invoking executive privilege, the right an incumbent president can use to deny handing over communication records to Congress as a measure to maintain the separation of powers.
District Court Judge for the District of Columbia Tanya Chutkan, however, struck that attempt down on 4 November 2021, casting doubt on the Trump legal team's claims that the former president enjoys such privilege too.
The House Select Committee was created by the Democrats to find any evidence that would prove Trump orchestrated the attack on the Capitol on 6 January 2021, when scores of his supporters breached the building to prevent Congress from certifying the election win of Democrat Joe Biden. At the time, the 45th president eventually turned to his now-suspended Twitter account to urge his supporters "to stay peaceful" and "go home". He was impeached for an unprecedented second time over accusations of "incitement to insurrection", but managed to evade conviction in the Senate.
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