Former President Donald Trump is suing a House committee and the National Archives to prevent the release of White House records related to the January 6 insurrection. The delaying tactic would require the Archives to identify all relevant documents for review by Trump lawyers before sending them to Congress. Trump claims the request for records is overly broad, a fishing expedition, and therefore unconstitutional and also that there is no legitimate legislative purpose for the request. (Politico, October 18, 2021, by Betsy Woodruff Swan and Kyle Cheney)
Biden administration spokesperson Mike Gwin released a statement that read in part, “The former president’s actions represented a unique — and existential — threat to our democracy that can’t be swept under the rug. As President Biden determined, the constitutional protections of executive privilege should not be used to shield information that reflects a clear and apparent effort to subvert the Constitution itself.” (CNN, October 19, 2021, by Katelyn Polantz and Tierney Sneed with contributions from Kaitlan Collins, Zachary Cohen, Ryan Nobles and Manu Raju)