WASHINGTON -Do presidents who seeks to take down the republic to keep power to keep his plans secret for years to come? Is there a coup-planning exemption for "executive right to be secret"?
This is the question that the former president Donald Trump could make federal courts confront following the election of his successor the president Joe Biden, this Friday voted to release of all documents the House committee that was investigating what happened on Jan. 6 attack at Capitol Hill in the U.S. Capitol had requested in its initial request.
"President Biden has determined that the asserting executive privilege isn't in the best interest of the United States, and therefore cannot be justified in relation to one of these documents." said White House counsel Dana Remus in a letter to the National Archives.
The letter continues to outline a plan which, if used in future requests for documents allow the release of virtually all documents associated with the Jan. 6, which was created under this administration. Trump administration.
"The constitutional safeguards afforded by executive privilege shouldn't be used to protect from Congress or from the public from information that indicates an obvious and evident attempt to subvert Constitutional rights. Constitution in its entirety," Remus wrote.
In a letter sent to the committee on Friday himself, Trump nonetheless claimed to have executive privilege for documents with numbers 47 from the first batch, and anything that the committee could require later on. "I am hereby making a safeguarding assertion of constitutionally protected privilege in relation to any additional records that follow that first round," he wrote.
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In the statement that accompanied it, Trump referenced the investigation of the aid the president received from Russia during the 2016 election and his impeachments which he referred to as "hoaxes," and his frequent lies about winning the 2020 presidential election: "We won two elections and fared better in the second one than the first and may have to go through it again!"
Norm Eisen, who worked in the role of an ethics counsel at the Barack Obama White House and later worked on the House committee in charge of Trump's first impeachment, stated that Biden's plan will keep nothing about Jan. 6's events kept under wraps. "The administration has been able to waive the privileges first regarding the testimony, for this set of documents, however both are have been based on a rationale that will be sweeping across the board and in a fair way," he said.
Trump attempted to take over American the system of government after losing his election in November Trump has been trying to block both requests made by the committee on select as well as the subpoenas they have issued to his former aides as well as his allies.
Friday was the first-ever public spotlight on both sides, as the committee issued an announcement that Mark Meadows, Trump's former chief of staff, as well as Kash Patel who was Trump's hand-picked Chief of Staff to be his defense secretary in the closing weeksof his presidency, were "so far, interacting with the committee on select."
The statement stated that Trump's former head of strategy, Steve Bannon, was not submitting to the subpoena's requirements. The statement didn't mention Dan Scavino, Trump's social media advisor, who has been able to elude the subpoena's request for service.
"We are going to enforce the subpoenas" Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo. ) Vice chair, posted on Twitter.
Committee members and chairman Bennie Thompson and chairman Bennie Thompson, an Mississippi Democrat has previously said that people who defy subpoenas could be sent by the Justice Department for criminal charges of obstruction to Congress.
Bannon lawyer Robert Costello, in a letter sent to the committee Thursday, claimed that Bannon did not agree to the subpoena due to Trump had invoked executive privilege and asked Bannon not to adhere to the request.
Costello has said that the outcome will be contingent on the outcome of the lawsuit brought by Donald Trump. "It's a decision taken by the courts, and not us."
Meadows, Patel and Scavino did not respond to HuffPost questions.
It was reported that the White House had previously stated that while each request for documents will be handled in a way that is unique to each individual Biden's position was that the event of Jan. 6 as well as the days prior to it represented a sweeping attack on American democracy , and Biden's preference was to provide Trump's records concerning that event for the committee.
Friday's letter to National Archives restated that view.
"These are extraordinary and unique conditions," Remus' letter declared. "An unprecedented attempt to block peaceable transfer of power that threatens not just the security of Congress as well as others at the Capitol and the surrounding areas, but also the democratic principles which are inscribed in our history and our Constitution. The documents provide a glimpse of what transpired in the White House on or about the 6th of January. 6. They also highlight the committee's responsibility to know the truth behind the most grave attack on the operation that the Federal government has had since Civil War."
Trump was the only president during the 232 year of U.S. elections to refuse to cede power peacefully for his replacement.
He was able to spend weeks arguing against the validity in the Nov. 3 contest, which he ultimately lost beginning his lies in the early morning dawn hours of November. 4, claiming that he actually won by an "landslide" and that his victory was "stolen" from the winner. These lies persisted throughout several failed lawsuits to challenge the results in several states.
Trump and a few of his advisors have even considered employing his U.S. military by invoking the Insurrection Act or declaring martial law to reclaim power despite having lost the election such as by seizing voting equipment and directing "re-votes" for states that were narrowly taken by Biden.
However, military leaders had previously stated that they would not participate into the process of deciding the presidential election. So when that the Electoral College finally voted on Dec. 14 to make Biden's victory official, Trump instead opted for an ultimatum to force his vice president into remove the voting of millions of people in various states Biden had won, and declared Trump as the winner in the formal congressional confirmation of the results of the election on Jan. 6.
Trump demanded that his followers go to Washington on that day, and later said to the tens and thousands of people who turned out to protest to the Capitol to try to intimidate Mike Pence into doing what Trump desired.
The crowd of supporters who he enthused tried to accomplish this by invading the building. They even shouted "Hang Mike Pence" after Pence refused to follow Trump's demands.
One police officer was killed following an assault by rioters and four others also committed suicide during the weeks and days that were following. The rioters died when she was wounded as she attempted to climb over a broken window into an anteroom with evacuated House members. Three others who were in the crowd perished in the midst of the riot.
While there was a chance that the House had impeached Trump because he sparked the violence, all but seven Senate Republicans including McConnell from Kentucky Mitch McConnell, chose not to indict him, thus permitting Trump continue to pursue his political career, even though he faces multiple investigations regarding his post-election activities.
Trump and his aides are now involved in an effort to paint the rioter shot, Ashli Babbitt, as a martyr , and the countless others detained as the victims of political persecution. Trump is continuing to say that he'll contest his 2024 GOP presidential nomination, and will use the money from his Save America committee's money to keep spreading the lies that led to the violence of January. 6.
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