The Biden administration moved Friday to block an attempt by former President Donald Trump to keep documentation related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack under wraps.
In a letter to the National Archives from White House counsel Dana Remus, "The White House said that having assessed the information, it would allow Trump-era documentation released to the House select committee investigating the deadly riots."
Under the Presidential Records Act, a past president has "a period to assert executive privilege, and then the current president and team [has] a period to review that request," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Friday.
The White House is not ruling out the possibility of blocking other Trump-era presidential documentation from reaching committee members' hands.
The House committee is seeking a wide array of communications and documentation from around the time of the Capitol attack, including communications relating to Trump's remarks at his Jan. 6 rally, any documented efforts to persuade him to deliver a message to the rioters, visitor logs, phone logs and many other records.
The House committee has also demanded information directly from certain federal agencies and from individuals who worked closely with Trump at the time of the Capitol attack.
Earlier this week, Trump sent a letter to four such individuals former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, former chief of staff Mark Meadows, former Defense Department official Kash Patel and former White House social media chief Dan Scavino ordering them not to comply with the committee's requests.
