““President Biden has reviewed the former president’s assertion and I have entered into consultations with the Department of Justice’s legal counsel’s office,” Remus wrote.
“President Biden has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore not warranted, with respect to documents provided to the White House on September 16, 2021 and September 23, 2021. Accordingly, President Biden does not confirm the former President’s assertion of privilege. “
Remus cited his previous letter to the National Archives highlighting the “extraordinary events” that day. The senior White House attorney also noted that Biden was asking the National Archives to provide the documents to the committee 30 days after notifying Trump, “in the absence of any intermediate court ruling.”
During a White House press briefing at the time, press secretary Jen Psaki said that âthe president has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not warranted for the first set of documents of the Trump White House provided to us by the National Archives. “
âAs we said before, this will be an ongoing process and this is just the first set of documents,â she said. “And we will assess questions of privilege on a case-by-case basis, but the President has also made it clear that he believes it is of the utmost importance to Congress and the American people to have a full understanding of the events of this. that day to prevent it from happening again. “
Legal experts say Biden has the final say on whether these documents are covered by executive privilege, and given that the committee is headed by members of Biden’s party, Trump’s power to influence the outcome is an open question.
This story was updated with additional details on Monday.
CNN’s Evan Perez, Zachary Cohen, and Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.