Chinanews.com, October 31. According to a comprehensive report from the National Archives of the United States, former President Trump hopes to detain 770 pages of archives to avoid submission to the House of Representatives special committee investigating the January 6 congressional riots. .
In a court document filed on the 30th, John Last, who is in charge of the White House Liaison Department of the National Archives, stated that Trump wanted to withhold various documents, including records of senior advisers, schedules, call records and The President’s Daily Journal.
Data map: Former US President Trump.
In court documents, Luster listed three batches of documents that Trump claimed to have privileges.
The first batch of 46 records includes the president’s daily journal, draft speeches and comments, and three handwritten notes from Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, on January 6.
The second batch of records includes 656 pages of documents, mainly including the talking points of the then White House spokesperson McKenney on election fraud and the 2020 election.
This batch of documents also includes a speech draft given by Trump for the "Save America" rally before the riots, and a "draft executive order on election integrity."
In addition, Trump also claimed privileges for the third batch of 68 records, including a draft proclamation commemorating Congressional police and police officers Brian Siknick and Howard Liebengood, who made a statement on January 6. Was killed in the congressional riots.
The third batch of records also contains records related to possible lawsuits filed by the states that President Biden won in 2020, as well as documents on the "security of the 2020 presidential election and various actions ordered."
This court document is in response to Trump's lawsuit filed earlier this month that tried to prevent the Special Committee from obtaining records related to the Trump administration on January 6.
The Special Committee of the House of Representatives, which is responsible for investigating congressional riots, asked the National Archives in August to hand over a long list of records of the former president’s tenure and after the congressional riots.
On October 8, the White House officially authorized the National Archives to submit the first batch of documents to the House Special Committee.
On October 18, Trump filed a lawsuit against a House committee in an attempt to prevent the committee from obtaining records of his government from the National Archives.
Trump argued that the legislative purpose of the House committee without supporting documents would overturn his claims of executive privilege.
But in a previous letter to the National Archives, White House legal counsel Dana Remus stated that Trump’s claims of administrative privileges were “unjustified”.
White House Spokesperson Psaki also said earlier that US President Biden has concluded that it is inappropriate to advocate the exercise of administrative privileges on issues related to January 6.
On January 6 this year, while the Congress was counting the electoral votes for the presidential election, supporters of former U.S. President Trump violently stormed Congress, killing at least five people.
This incident is the worst attack the US Congress has suffered in the past 200 years.
Since then, the House of Representatives impeached Trump on charges of sedition, but the Senate acquitted Trump.
On June 30, the House of Representatives voted to establish a special committee to investigate the riots in the Capitol.