Biden White House waives executive privilege for initial set of

“The effect of this decision may be limited,” Remus wrote. The determination on the documents only applied to a set of records provided to the White House on Sept. 8, and Remus wrote: “We continue to review materials you provided to the White House after that date and will respond at an appropriate time.”

Biden’s decision triggers a 60-day window for Trump to challenge the determination in court before the National Archives releases them to the Jan. 6 panel. It mirrors a similar decision made by Biden and his DOJ earlier this year to waive privilege and and allow former Trump DOJ officials to testify before congressional committees about the former president’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

The White House’s statement comes after the House select panel investigating the attack announced two close allies of former President Donald Trump — former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former Pentagon aide Kash Patel — were “engaging with” it on their subpoenas, the panel’s top two lawmakers said Friday.

Panel chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) confirmed in a statement that the two Trump associates had been in touch with the panel. Thompson and Cheney also threatened criminal contempt for former Trump campaign chief Steve Bannon, who had informed the committee he wouldn’t cooperate with their inquiry into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

“Though the Select Committee welcomes good-faith engagement with witnesses seeking to cooperate with our investigation, we will not allow any witness to defy a lawful subpoena or attempt to run out the clock, and we will swiftly consider advancing a criminal contempt of Congress referral,” Thompson and Cheney said.

A lawyer for Bannon, Robert Costello, told the committee on Thursday that Bannon would refuse to comply because of Trump’s claim that he can invoke executive privilege to block Bannon’s testimony.

“Until these issues are resolved, we are unable to respond to your request for documents and testimony,” Costello wrote to the Jan. 6 committee. Costello’s letter was first reported by The New York Times; POLITICO reported on Thursday that Trump had instructed Bannon and other former aides subpoenaed by the select panel not to comply with lawmakers’ demands.

It’s a questionable claim from Bannon’s lawyer, because the ex-Trump aide was years removed from the White House by the time the former president’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election — the subject of the committee’s subpoena — began in earnest. Executive privilege is typically reserved for a president’s closest advisers and not meant to be a broad shield for testimony requests.

Any move by the Jan. 6 committee to hold a witness in criminal contempt would first require the panel to vote on a contempt resolution. That resolution would then move to the House floor for a vote.

The select panel investigating the insurrection by Trump supporters had subpoenaed four onetime…