Biden orders release of Trump White House logs to Congress

• 

President Joe Biden has ordered the release of Trump White House visitor logs to a House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 incident, defying former President Donald Trump's claims of executive privilege once again.

The Committee has asked the National Archives for a plethora of information, including presidential records that Trump has battled to keep private. The records being disclosed to Congress include visitor logs that detail who was allowed to enter the White House on the day of the insurgency and when they were authorized to do so.

White House counsel Dana Remus said in a letter to the National Archives on Monday that Biden had considered Trump's claim that the records should be kept private because he was President at the time of the attack on the US Capitol, and maintained that it was "not in the best interest of the United States" to do so.

She also pointed out that the Biden administration, like the Obama administration, "voluntarily distributes such visitor logs on a monthly basis," and that the majority of the entries over which Trump asserted the claim would be made public under current policy. A request for a response from a Trump official was not immediately returned.

See more: Jan. 6: Who do Americans hold responsible?

The Presidential Records Act requires that records created by a sitting president and his staff be preserved in the National Archives, and an outgoing president must turn over the documents to the agency when he or she leaves office. In a case decided by the Supreme Court, Trump attempted but failed to withhold White House papers from a House committee.

Biden has already stated that he will only invoke executive privilege concerning the congressional probe if necessary. Biden has waived that privilege for much of the other information sought by the committee, which is sifting through the records and gathering testimony from witnesses, including those who are being uncooperative.

The Committee is concentrating on Trump's activities since January 6, when he waited hours before telling his supporters to cease the violence and leave the Capitol. Investigators are also looking into the planning and funding of a gathering in Washington on the morning of the violence, during which Trump encouraged supporters to "fight like hell." One of the unresolved topics is how closely rally organizers worked with White House officials.

Trump's possession of White House records 

Investigators are also looking for conversations between the National Archives and Trump's advisors concerning 15 boxes of records found at Trump's Florida club and trying to figure out what they included.

Meanwhile, the White House phone logs received by the House committee thus far do not include any calls made by Trump while watching the carnage develop on television on Jan. 6, nor any calls made directly to the President.

The lack of information about Trump's calls is proving particularly difficult for investigators as they try to figure out what the President was up to in the White House while supporters rioted, broke into the Capitol, and disrupted congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden's election victory.

There are several probable explanations for the omissions in the records, which do not, for example, include Trump's calls with various Republican senators on January 6. Trump was known to use a personal cell phone, or he may have been given one by an aide. The Committee is still receiving records from the National Archives and other sources, which could yield more information.