The Biden White House rejects Trump’s claims of executive privilege

(CNN) – President Joe Biden once again refused to impose a law Executive Franchise On more documents that former President Donald Trump tried to keep out of the reach of the Commission of Inquiry January 6 to the United States Capitol.

According to a letter obtained by CNN, White House counsel Dana Remus told National Archives David Ferrero on Monday that Biden will not confirm his concession for additional materials that Trump has requested remain classified as a matter of executive privilege.

The former president has already sued to prevent the National Archives, the custodian of his administration’s White House records, from handing over documents to Congress that he believes have the privilege, and the most recent documents are likely to become part of that claim. The National Archives will begin handing over records to the House of Representatives on November 12, unless Trump obtains a court order.

“President Biden has considered the former president’s assertion and I have consulted with the Office of the General Counsel of the Department of Justice,” Remus wrote.

“President Biden has determined that asserting executive privilege is not in the interests of the United States, and therefore unwarranted, according to documents submitted to the White House on September 16, 2021 and September 23, 2021. As a result, President Biden is not defending the former president’s privilege.”

Remus referred to his previous letter to the National Archives, in which it highlighted the “extraordinary events” of that day. The White House chief counsel also noted that Biden instructed the National Archives to submit the documents to the committee 30 days after Trump was notified, “without any court intervention.”

The White House told the National Archives earlier this month that it would not impose an executive lien on an initial batch of documents requested by the Jan. 6 commission.

During a White House press conference at the time, Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that “the president has determined that assertion of executive privilege is not warranted in relation to the first set of White House documents that Trump submitted to the White House.”

“As we said earlier, this will be an ongoing process and this is only the first set of documents,” he said. “We will assess franchise issues on a case-by-case basis, but the president also made it clear that he believes it is critical to Congress and the American people to have a full understanding of the events of that day to prevent it from happening again.”

As part of the House Select Committee’s extensive investigation, the committee sent requests for information to various federal agencies. The committee specifically requested “all documents and communications within the White House” as of January 6, including records of calls, hours, and meetings with senior officials and outside advisers, including Rudy Giuliani.

Legal experts say Biden has the final say on whether these documents are covered by executive privilege, and given that the committee is led by members of Biden’s party, Trump’s authority to influence the outcome is an open question.

CNN’s Evan Perez, Zachary Cohen, and Catelyn Pollantz contributed to this report.