President Joe Biden has rejected former President Donald Trump’s effort to stop the House probe of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot from obtaining White House visitor logs from the day of the attack.
Biden’s counsel Dana Remus told the National Archives and Records Administration on Tuesday that the president is ordering the release of those and other records to the House select committee.
Trump had claimed that the records — entries in visitor logs showing who was processed to enter the White House complex, including on Jan. 6, 2021 — are protected by executive privilege, the legal doctrine that allows for some executive-branch documents to be kept hidden.
But 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 these records and portions of records,” Remus wrote in a letter sent to National Archivist David Ferriero and obtained by CNBC.
A spokesman for the select committee declined CNBC’s request for comment.
The New York Times first reported the letter earlier Wednesday.
This is developing news. Please check back for updates.
