Trump Makes Threat After House Select Committee Investigating Capitol Riots Requests Documents

Yesterday former President Donald Trump threatened to invoke executive privilege in an effort to block the House select committee investigating the Capitol riots from obtaining documents from several U.S. government agencies. In a statement Trump said “executive privilege will be defended, not just on behalf of my administration and the patriots who worked beside me, but on behalf of the office of the President of the United States and the future of our nation”. The Biden administration had previously declined asserting executive privilege over some testimony related to the events on January 6th and told former Justice Department officials that they were free to provide ‘unrestricted testimony.’

The documents requested from the committee are similar to those previously issued in the aftermath of the riot but broaden the search to other areas and people inside and outside of the government. The select committee is asking for records from the DOJ, Department of Interior, Department of Defense, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, the National Counter Terrorism Center, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Archives.