Trump wants to keep the documents secret and protect Bannon

© Ben Gray / AP / TT
Former US President Donald Trump. Photo from September.

Through a lawsuit, US President Donald Trump is trying to block the release of White House documents from around the time of the congressional storm in January.

Nor does Trump want his former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, to testify before the congressional committee investigating the attack.

The controversial right-wing populist Bannon was summoned to the special committee on Thursday and also asked to hand over some materials. But he never appears to refer to the special protection (“executive privilege” in English) that surrounds the presidency.

He did not go home The Commission.

During the day, they plan to vote to put Bannon in charge of defying Congress (the equivalent of defying the court), the AP News Agency and other media outlets note. Because Bannon was not in the White House or even a government employee when the deadly storm occurred, there is no indication that he was covered by the former president’s potential legal protections, the committee’s management concluded.

© Cornelius Poppe / NTB Scanpix / TT
Former Chief Strategist for President Donald Trump Steve Bannon. Photo gallery.

He wanted to ‘bury Biden’

Trump fired his chief strategist in August 2017, but the two are known to have been in touch in recent years.

After Trump lost the presidential election last year and began making false accusations of election fraud, they spoke by phone, according to information in the book “Danger” written by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. In December last year, Bannon reportedly urged Trump to focus on January 6, the election voting date, so that Joe Biden’s election victory would be determined by Congress.

© John Minchillo / AP / TT
Photo taken on January 6, when angry supporters of presidential election loser Donald Trump storm the Capitol building in Washington, DC.

“On January 6th, we will bury Biden,” Bannon said in the conversation, according to the book.

It is this conversation, among other things, that the House Special Committee wants to ask questions about.

Annoying fishing?

But Donald Trump has called on Bannon and other partners to deny such legally binding calls, citing the presidency’s authority.

In an effort to block a congressional investigation, the former president also filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C. In it, he disputes the committee’s request for documents from his time as chair, citing the fact that it is too extensive and includes documents unrelated to Jan. 6, AFP and the Associated Press note.

“The committee’s request is nothing less than a disturbing poaching expedition expressly approved by Biden and designed to investigate President Trump and his government in violation of the Constitution,” the lawsuit said.

Incumbent President Joe Biden recently agreed that the investigative committee initially had access to a total of 125 pages of documents.

Trump is asking the court to declare the document requests invalid, which means the US National Archives are not allowed to publish the material. Even if his attempt fails, the lawsuit will likely delay its publication by several months.

Expected action

The US National Archives is responsible for all documents from the White House. Since the end of August, investigators have sent extensive requests for extracts from the record to the archive, and Biden and Trump have 30 days to review the material before it is released.

This is done against the background of an old HD decision that the presidents of the country may keep some documents and correspondence confidential in order to promote honest discussions. However, no court has passed a ruling on whether this privilege also applies to past presidents, such as Donald Trump. For now, the last word is Joe Biden.