Call logs, speech drafts on records Trump has been trying to block since Jan. 6 investigators

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The National Archives indicated that several files were taken from the systems of key Trump aides including former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, adviser Stephen Miller and deputy counsel Patrick Philbin.

Other documents include the “draft text of a presidential speech for January 6, 2021, Save America March; a handwritten list of potential or scheduled briefings and phone calls about election issues; and a draft Executive Order on the integrity of the election… a draft proclamation honoring deceased Capitol Police officers Brian Sicknick and Howard Liebengood, and related e-mails from the Office of the Executive Clerk, which related to the Select Committee’s interest in the White House’s response to the Capitol Attack. “

“All of these records relate to events on or about January 6, and may have contributed to the Select Committee’s investigation that day, including what happened in the White House immediately before, during and after the attack. on Jan. 6, ”Justice Department attorneys, acting. on behalf of Archivist David Ferriero, wrote the filing.

The documents have been excavated into four distinct tranches identified by the National Archives since they were requested by the select committee on January 6 in late August. Trump sued to block the release on Oct. 15 and asked a federal judge to issue an emergency order preventing the National Archives from sending them to the committee.

The National Archives filed its filing in response to Trump’s lawsuit seeking an emergency court order to block Ferriero from sending them to Congress. Trump said the disclosure of the documents would violate the executive’s privilege and would show an unprecedented assault on the executive branch.

But the archives rejected Trump’s legal arguments, stressing that the committee’s Jan. 6 requests were specifically tailored to its investigation, and that President Joe Biden had already made the “manifestly reasonable” decision that deny Trump’s claims of privilege.

“However, even assuming the applicability of executive privilege, the documents to the Select Committee may help in understanding efforts to engage the American public, including those who attacked the Capitol on January 6, on topics of non -alleged voter fraud, election security, and other topics related to the 2020 elections, ”according to the filing.

Trump’s effort to suppress the more than 750 pages of records is far more extensive than previously known, and includes documents from three separate tranches identified by the National Archives since early October in response to a request from the select committee on January 6.

In its own filing, the select committee said Jan. 6 that a federal court should reject Trump’s efforts to block its investigation or risk future elections subject to abuse.

The panel argues that the continued efforts of Trump and his allies to undermine confidence in federal elections reinforce the committee’s need to access Trump’s White House records to understand his attempt to reverse the results of the 2020 election.

“The urgency of the work cannot be overstated,” House Counsel Doug Letter wrote in a 52-page legal brief delivered Friday night to Judge Tanya Chutkan. “The threat that brought about the attack on Jan. 6 continues. Those who falsely claimed to have stolen the election (including Mr. Trump) continue to do so.”

Chutkan is scheduled to hold a hearing on Trump’s bid to block access to his notes on Thursday. He was among the most outspoken judges on the federal bench in Washington, DC, who called the Jan. 6 attack a major attack on democracy-driven by rioters loyal to Trump. In the unrest that day, many rioters were killed, and more than 140 policemen were injured.

Ferriero indicated that he intends to provide the first tranche of documents before Nov. 12 unless the court orders otherwise.

In his lawsuit, Trump said the committee’s efforts to investigate the attack were political, and efforts to obtain his documents would undermine the ability of all future presidents to have honest communication with advisers and allies.

But in its new filing, the committee sharply denied these claims, citing that Biden had already judged worthy of questioning and that Trump’s unique role of promoting false statements about the election requires thorough narration of his actions.

“Sir. Trump is — so far — a case of one,” the committee argued. “He is — so far — the only failed presidential candidate who has not consented, who has spent months spreading lies about the election, to encourage a self-coup to illegally keep him in office, or to provoke a mob to attack the Capitol. There is nothing more important to study to determine how the law can prevent the repetition of such practices. ”

Moreover, the committee says that if Trump’s lawsuit succeeds, it could jeopardize efforts to fully understand what happened on Jan. 6 and “to prevent a similar attack in the future on American democracy. “

Throughout its filing, the committee emphasizes that Biden agrees with lawmakers about the urgency of its investigation. And it cited the Nixon -era precedent to note that the Supreme Court determined that former presidents had less legal authority to request the confidentiality of Executive Branch records.

Importantly, it says, this is the first time a sitting president has challenged a previlege assertion filed by a former president. Biden’s claim should win, it says, because the courts have ruled that the current president has a better insight into how to protect the interests of the Executive Branch.

“As President Biden pointed out, any burden on the Office of the President is greatly outweighed by the Select Committee’s stringent requirement for information to pass legislation that is so important to our democracy,” the committee wrote.

Biden repeatedly refused to assert executive privilege on the records sought by the committee on Jan. 6, but the panel postponed a request for approximately 50 pages identified by the National Archives as relevant. Committee members indicated that the decision was intended to avoid a potentially long delay in potential privilege concerns.

The Jan. 6 committee also rejected Trump’s claim that the Supreme Court’s decision in a separate case – an attempt by the House in 2019 to obtain his financial records – should close the committee’s request for his White House papers. That decision, the committee said, only deals with the personal papers of a sitting president – not the official records of a former president.

Trump also argued that the committee’s need for his documents was minimal and that the panel could pursue its legislative goals without obtaining records that he felt were privileged. But the committee described that notion as “absurd.”

“The long public record of Mr. Trump’s statements and actions … provides ample basis for finding non -public records of the person sought to be kept by the White House attackers,” the committee wrote. “Any inquiry that did not insist on examining Mr. Trump’s documents and communications would be worse than useless — the equivalent of presenting a production of ‘Hamlet’ without the Prince of Denmark.”

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