Court records reveal the documents that Donald Trump and his White House officials most want to keep hidden from the House select committee.
The twice-impeached one-term president has claimed executive privilege over 39 pages from the 136 pages of documents that were set to be released Friday by the National Archives and Records Administration, and those documents include handwritten notes about Jan. 6, appointments for White House visitors, and switchboard logs that show calls between Trump and former vice president Mike Pence, reported USA Today.
"These records all relate to the events on or about January 6, and may assist the Select Committee's investigation into that day, including what was occurring at the White House immediately before, during and after the January 6 attack," wrote Justice Department lawyers in a court filing for the National Archives and archivist David Ferriero.
A federal appeals court temporarily delayed the release of those documents to allow Trump's challenge to play out, and oral arguments are set for Nov. 30, but the former president's filings reveal the contours of what congressional investigators want to see.
"Of the 763 pages in which Trump asserted privilege, 629 are talking points prepared for the press secretary and 43 include presidential schedules, appointments, activity logs, call logs, among other documents, according to the filing from the National Archives," USA Today reported. "The National Archives identified nearly 1,600 pages of records that fit the committee's request, with thousands more yet to be reviewed, according to the agency. Trump sought to keep nearly half the pages confidential, but the Justice Department replied that they are crucial to the investigation."
The committee has asked for any records -- including calendar entries, videos or photographs -- related to Jan. 6 and coordinated efforts to delay the certification of the electoral vote, and the requests cover Trump's public statements about the 2020 election and its validity.
The records have been divided into four installments, with the first batch scheduled to be released at the end of last week, and the second and third batches set for Nov. 26, and the fourth was still under review.
The first set of documents includes daily presidential diaries, schedules, activity logs and first drafts of speeches, while the second batch covers talking points and other documents from the White House press secretary, and a "much smaller" tranche includes handwritten notes, a draft of a speech for the "Save America March" and a draft of an executive order concerning election integrity.
A third batch includes a draft proclamation honoring Capitol police officers Brian Sicknick and Howard Liebengood, who died after the attack, and a memo that originated outside the White House concerning a possible lawsuit by the United States against several states won by Joe Biden.
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