Donald Trump has been trying to keep various records out of the hands of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, but a new move from President Biden has put a wrench in one of those efforts. The New York Times reports that Biden has rejected Trump's assertion that visitor logs for the White House during the former president's time in office are subject to executive privilege and therefore shouldn't be made available to the House panel. Instead, Biden, via a Tuesday letter from White House counsel Dana Remus, has directed the National Archives to release those visitor logs, including ones from the day of the Capitol riot.
In her letter, Remus cites a "compelling need" by Congress to have access to those records, even though it's not clear what they would show or how well-kept they are. She noted that "constitutional protections of executive privilege should not be used to shield, from Congress or the public, information that reflects a clear and apparent effort to subvert the Constitution itself." Among the entries sought: "appointment information for individuals who were processed to enter the White House complex, including on Jan. 6, 2021," Remus' letter reads.
The documents from the National Archives should be handed over within 15 days, "unless prohibited by court order," Remus' letter notes, per CNN. The Obama administration had kept the White House's visitor logs public with limited exceptions, a move reversed by Trump early on in his presidency, for what his administration said were "grave national security risks and privacy concerns," per the Washington Post. Biden once more opened up the logs when he moved into the White House. (More White House visitors stories.)
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