White House Blocks Trump Attempt To Withhold Documents Related To Jan 6 Attack
Press secretary Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden had authorized the National Archives, a government agency that holds records from Trump’s time in office, to turn over an initial batch of documents requested by the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee investigating the riot.
The president has determined an assertion of executive privilege isn’t warranted for the first set of documents from the Trump White House that have been provided to us by the National Archives,” Psaki said.
Executive privilege is a legal doctrine that protects the confidentiality of some communications between White House officials.
Trump said the Biden administration was using the investigation to undercut his future political prospects.
“This is about using the power of the government to silence ‘Trump’ and our Make America Great Again movement, the greatest such achievement of all time,” he said in a statement.
A mob of supporters of then-U.S. President Donald Trump climb through a window they broke as they storm the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, U.S., January 6, 2021. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo
Throngs of Trump supporters stormed the seat of Congress on Jan. 6 in a failed bid to prevent lawmakers from certifying Democrat Biden’s presidential victory. More than 600 people now face criminal charges stemming from the event.
Bannon on Thursday told the committee he would not comply with a subpoena it issued last month.
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If Your Time is short
Former President Donald Trumps letter to the editor included a host of dubious allegations that sought to cast doubt on Joe Bidens 2020 presidential victory in Pennsylvania, but there is ample evidence to demonstrate that Biden won the state.
The state certified the election following county-level audits. After the certification, it undertook a different type of audit that confirmed no major discrepancy with the final tally.
Trump and his allies lost virtually all of their legal challenges after the election, and none changed the result in the state. Even judges appointed by Republicans were unsparing in their dismissals of Trump-aligned arguments.
According to the official certified results, Joe Biden won Pennsylvania in the 2020 presidential election by 80,555 votes, flipping the state from a Donald Trump victory in 2016.
According to Trump, theres no way that happened legitimately.
“The election was rigged,” Trump wrote in an Oct. 27 letter to the Wall Street Journal editorial page. “This is why Democrats and the Fake News Media do not want a full forensic audit in Pennsylvania.”
The letter was the latest example of Trump doubling down on debunked claims about the election.
Trumps letter raised suspicions about mail ballots, voter registration and the behavior of election officials.
Regardless, Trump is wrong, again, that he won Pennsylvania in the 2020 election.
Here, well review how we know Biden won Pennsylvania.
Donald Trump Presidential Cabinet
“The Cabinet” was a group of 16 individuals, including the vice president, who advised the president on matters regarding the executive department that he or she oversaw. An additional seven appointees had Cabinet-rank status. Members were nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The members of President Donald Trump‘s Cabinet at the end of his term appear below. At the beginning of President Trump’s term, the Cabinet consisted of 24 total positions. However, he demoted the Ambassador to the United Nations midway through his term, effective with the departure of Nikki Haley, so his final Cabinet only consisted of 23 positions.
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How Is Trump Trying To Use It Against Jan 6 Committee Requests
Two ways: by fighting the release of documents from his time in the White House and by urging his former top aides not to talk to Congress.
The special House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection has requested a ton of information from federal agencies such as the National Archives and the FBI about the view from the White House and the actions of Republican members of Congress on that day. The committee asked for answers to questions including:
- Who in Congress talked to the White House on and around that day?
- Did Trump plan to march to the Capitol on the 6th?
- Was Trump planning to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power?
The committees records requests indicate that it is also looking into Trumps broader efforts to fight his election loss and replace top government officials with his own loyalists. It has subpoenaed top Trump aides and advisers, including Mark Meadows, Trumps chief of staff at the time, and Stephen K. Bannon, a close adviser.
Trumps lawyer has told those officials not to cooperate, but so far only Bannon has said he wont provide testimony to the committee.
News Flash: Trump Is Not The President News Flash: Trump Is Not The President
Re: Trump supporters are a threat to our democracy, by Aldo Ferrario :
Well Aldo Ferrario, its time you realize that Donald Trump is no longer the president. You reference letters from readers Lorraine Nye, Gerald Chase and the weekly columns from Sun Chronicle columnist Bob Foley.
It was actually heart warming to read their submissions and confirm we still have some real Americans in this country. I saved that edition so I can read it again at a later date to lift my spirits. The threat to our country is sitting in the White House right now. Unless you are a socialist/communist, you know we are in serious trouble with Biden and this administration. Freedom of speech is being attacked daily. Just look at parents confronting school board members regarding what is being taught to their children.
Parents shouldnt have a say in their childrens education . How about Americans being abandoned in Afghanistan?
We have thousands illegals crossing our border all because of Biden doing absolutely nothing about it.
Donald Trump had this totally under control. All these illegals are being spread over our county without vetting or COVID vaccine. Talk about killing Americans. The Biden/Democrat socialist agenda will destroy our country as we know and love it. Hard-working Americans are being hammered already. We are paying more for every single item we purchase.
Last words: can you name one single thing Biden has accomplished? I doubt it.
Kenneth Porter
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Look What People Are Saying
CNN– Tim Ferriss, ‘The 4-Hour Workweek’ & ‘The Tim Ferriss Show’– Entrepreneur Magazine – Dan Kennedy, No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent – Peter Shankman, Help A Reporter Out – Sandra Sims, Step by Step Fundraising – John Kremer, 1001 Ways to Market Your Books– Steve Purcell, LookToTheStars.org – Paul Hartunian, Free Publicity Information Center – Dan Janal, PR LEADS– Anthony Record, Autograph Magazine– Robert Skrob, Information Marketing Association – Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound
Trump Has Been Relatively Hands Off Smerconish Has A Theory Why
Washington Former President Donald Trump indicated on Thursday that he will try to assert executive privilege to prevent a House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol from getting information from certain witnesses.
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The Biden Administration Has A Say In This
Ultimately, its not up to Trump whether he gets to claim executive privilege for information within the federal government. Its up to the Biden administration, since President Biden is the one in charge of the federal agencies that have the records.
And Biden has approved the release of Trumps information over the former presidents objections. The presidents dedicated to ensuring that something like that could never happen again, which is why the administration is cooperating with ongoing investigations, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
Trumps next step could be to sue the administration, Congress or both to try to stop the release, claiming that Biden is handing over records that he deems private.
There isnt much precedent for whether a sitting president can and should protect a former president, said Josh Chafetz, a law professor at Georgetown University who wrote a book about the separation of powers. Harry S. Truman tried once to ignore a congressional committee subpoena that came after he had left the presidency. That created such a political firestorm that Congress backed down before the question of former presidents and executive privilege could be settled in the courts.
Can Trump Use Executive Privilege To Stall The Jan 6 Investigation
Former president Donald Trump is trying to do something that is without modern precedent: use executive privilege, even though hes no longer president, to stop Congress from investigating his role in fomenting the violence of Jan. 6.
Can he? President Biden ultimately gets to decide that, and the White House has said it will cooperate with the investigators.
But at the very least, Trump could prevent the committee from getting what it wants just by putting up a fight that could test the limits of current presidential power vs. a former presidents rights. Heres how.
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Lankford Proposes Rules Changes
On February 6, 2019, Sen. James Lankford proposed S.R. 50, which sought to limit post-cloture debate from 30 hours to two hours for several types of nominations, including many Executive Branch nominees and district court judges. The resolution did not propose changing the rules for Supreme Court or Cabinet-rank nominees. The U.S. Senate voted 51-49 on S.R. 50 on April 2, 2019, but it failed to receive enough votes to pass. It required 60 votes to change the rules for the remainder of the 116th Congress and 67 votes to become a permanent rule change.
In a press release announcing the resolution, Lankford said:
| In the last two years, the confirmation process has been mired in unprecedented political stall tactics. The Senate nomination process needs to function efficiently again. Presidents, regardless of their party, should be able to pick their staff. Its the Senates role to ensure nominees are capable and qualified we have a responsibility to provide advice and consent. Needless obstruction of that process is a failure of our duty. This resolution would permanently reduce post-cloture debate time for most nominations and allow the Senate to fulfill a primary constitutional duty of advice and consent. It is time to update the Senate rules so the nomination process can function appropriately again. |
First What Is Executive Privilege
Its a loose legal protection for the president and top White House aides designed to give them confidentiality as they make tough decisions while governing, without fearing that those private conversations will be scrutinized by Congress.
Modern presidents have leaned heavily on executive privilege when the White House didnt want to give information to Congress, but Trump took it to a new level. During his first impeachment, he blocked or tried to block every single records request and subpoena by citing executive privilege.
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There Could Be More Lawsuits
While Trump is debating suing Biden or Congress, the Jan. 6 committee will have the option to sue Trump to assert that he doesnt have privilege over the documents it wants.
Congress has successfully sued Trump before to get his tax records. But it took a while. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court and back down, and only recently did a judge rule that lawmakers can have some but not all of the records they requested years ago.
People involved in the investigation point out that theres a long history of the White House handing over sensitive communications to Congress when it is in the greater public interest, and they argue that the origins of the Jan. 6 insurrection certainly fit that mold.
President Gerald Ford testified about his pardon of former president Richard M. Nixon. President Bill Clinton made two senior White House officials available to Congress for an entire day of testimony during his impeachment trial.
Whether Trump can win a legal battle may be a moot point. He can drag things out for a few years knowing its possible that Republicans will take control of the House in January 2023 and that theyll decide to drop the investigation. The top House Republican, Kevin McCarthy , adamantly opposes this special committee.
And that ends the whole thing, Chafetz said.
Former White House Counsel And Harvard Law Lecturer Neil Eggleston Explains The Legal Doctrine Its Origins And How It Applies To Former Presidents
Harvard Law Today: What is executive privilege and how does it work?
Neil Eggleston: Executive privilege is a doctrine that has grown up to protect, generally, the internal communications within the White House and with the president of the United States. Essentially, the doctrine is a balancing test, as Chief Justice Burger articulated in United States v. Nixon. The chief justice recognized that to be effective, a president needed to be able to consult with his advisers and that, to get the right kind of advice, he had to have some level of confidence that advice would remain confidential, or else people might withhold their advice for fear of it getting out. On the other hand, the chief justice held that in circumstances of a demonstrated need, the executive privilege would fail. So, its a qualified privilege, not an absolute privilege. And as we all know, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that President Nixon could not protect his communications under executive privilege.
HLT: Beyond presidents themselves, who elses communications might be protected by executive privilege?
HLT: Where and when did this doctrine start? In the Nixon case?
HLT: What are the arguments for and against executive privilege?
Neil Eggleston was White House counsel from 2014 to 2017, he teaches a course at HLS titled Presidential Power in an Era of Conflict.
HLT: Is there anything that is absolutely privileged under almost any circumstances?
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Landry: Cassidys Continued False Attacks On President Trump Prove He Cant Be Trusted
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In 2010, Louisiana voters in our Third Congressional District spoke loudly they were done with establishment politicians who seemed to ignore the people and reward the insiders. It was a shock to the pundits and the press, but not to me and the tens of thousands of my neighbors who placed their trust in me, an outsider, to represent them in Congress. We saw this again in 2016 when our state chose their President, strongly electing Donald Trump.
Today, even more folks in the Bayou State are fed up with politicians who say one thing in Louisiana but do the opposite in Washington.
Unfortunately, one of those DC insider politicians is Senator Bill Cassidy. His vote to impeach President Trump was both shocking and disappointing. His newest comments about President Trump are yet another betrayal to the voters who elected him.
Those of us with a television or a radio heard just last year that Bill Cassidy was an ally of Trump and his policies, policies which helped revitalize our economy and made America an even greater and stronger nation. Cassidys campaign raised and spent millions and millions of dollars declaring Cassidys allegiance to President Trumps America First agenda.
Cassidys team used President Trump to raise more than $10 million to fund his message scheme.
That episode was just the first of many ways Cassidy has repeatedly failed to represent the will of the people who sent him to the Senate.
