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- Trump claimed that records requested by the House committee investigating the Capitol riot are protected.
- It's up to the Biden administration to determine whether executive privilege protects the records.
- The select committee issued sweeping requests targeting former White House officials and key Trump allies.
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Former President Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday that documents and communications relating to the January 6 attack on the Capitol are protected by executive privilege, even though it's up to President Joe Biden's administration to make that assertion.
Trump made the claim after the House select committee investigating the events of January 6 issued sweeping records requests from several federal agencies, former White House officials, and Trump advisors and family members.
"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," Trump said in a Wednesday statement. He also labeled the committee a "partisan sham" and a waste of money.
The Justice Department told former officials in May that they are allowed to give "unrestricted testimony" to the various congressional committees investigating the events of January 6 and Trump's efforts to use the DOJ to overturn the results of the election. The administration has yet to make a determination about whether the investigators should have similar access to White House records.
The bipartisan select committee is requesting records from the departments of justice, interior, defense, homeland security, the FBI, the office of the director of national intelligence, the National Counterterrorism Center, and the National Archives, which houses Trump's White House records.
Former Vice President Mike Pence and many of Trump's White House and campaign advisors - including former chief of staff Mark Meadows, ex-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former national security advisor Michael Flynn, and former top aide Steve Bannon - are all targeted in the requests.
The select committee is also demanding communications and documents relating to Trump's family members who worked in the White House or served the ex-president in other capacities, including former first lady Melania Trump, ex-advisors Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Trump's two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and his daughter-in-law Lara Trump.
The committee's stated aim is to investigate "the facts, circumstances, and causes of the January 6th attack."
"Our Constitution provides for a peaceful transfer of power, and this investigation seeks to evaluate threats to that process, identify lessons learned and recommend laws, policies, procedures, rules, or regulations necessary to protect our republic in the future," Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee chairman and a Mississippi Democrat, said in a Wednesday statement.
Thompson said this slew of records requests would be followed by others.
The group held its first public hearing on July 27. It featured emotional testimony from four law enforcement officers who responded to the Capitol attack.