By Jan Wolfe
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden has authorized the release of a new tranche of records from Donald Trump’s presidency to the congressional committee probing last year’s attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a government letter released on Wednesday.
In the letter, U.S. National Archivist David Ferriero said Biden had declined to use a presidential power known as executive privilege to keep the Trump records confidential.
The letter is consistent with Biden’s earlier statements that it is in the country’s best interests for Congress to obtain Trump White House records relating to the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
Ferriero’s letter said the U.S. National Archives will deliver the latest batch of records to the committee on April 28. The letter did not say what types of records would be transmitted, but the committee has previously obtained speech drafts, call and visitor logs, handwritten notes and other files.
The National Archives, a federal agency that maintains presidential records, has already turned over hundreds of pages of documents to the House of Representatives Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
Trump and his allies have waged an ongoing legal battle seeking to block access to documents and witnesses. Trump has sought to invoke executive privilege, which protects the confidentially of some internal White House communications.
The U.S. Supreme Court in January rejected a request by Trump to block the release of a tranche of White House records sought by the congressional panel.
Only one of the court’s nine members, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, publicly noted disagreement with the decision.
The Select Committee has said it needs the records to understand any role Trump may have played in fomenting the violence that unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021. His supporters stormed the Capitol in a failed bid to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory over Trump.
(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; editing by Jonathan Oatis and David Gregorio)
