Biden orders Trump White House visitor logs turned over to Jan. 6 committee
ABC News
Trump had claimed executive privilege trying to block the record release.
President Joe Biden has rejected another of former President Donald Trump's executive privilege claims, deciding that Trump White House visitor logs should be handed over to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol -- and the effort to overturn the 2020 election -- within 15 days.
A letter from Chief White House Counsel Dana Remus to the National Archives obtained by ABC states, "The President has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified, as to these records and portions of records," the letter states.
The visitor logs in question, Remus writes, "are entries in visitor logs showing appointment information for individuals who were processed to enter the White House complex, including on January 6, 2021."
The letter goes on to explain that the Biden administration routinely discloses visitor logs, as did the Obama administration, therefore "preserving the confidentiality" of the Trump logs " is not necessary to protect long-term institutional interests of the Executive Branch."
