Trump Forcing Courts To Decide If Executive Privilege Has A ‘Coup-Plotting’ Exception

LOADING ERROR LOADING WASHINGTON ― Does a president who tries to overthrow the republic to remain in power get to keep those planning conversations secret for decades to come? That is the question former President Donald Trump could force federal courts to confront after his successor, President Joe Biden, on Friday approved the release of all the documents that the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol had asked for in its initial request. In an accompanying statement, Trump referenced the investigation of the assistance he received from Russia in his 2016 election, both his impeachments, which he called “hoaxes,” and his often-repeated lies about having won the 2020 election: “We won two elections, did far better in the second than the first, and now perhaps have to do it a third time!” Norm Eisen, who served as an ethics lawyer in the Barack Obama White House and more recently worked for the House committee overseeing Trump’s first impeachment, said Biden’s approach will keep very little about Jan. 6 under wraps. Friday saw the first public flashpoint on both efforts, as the committee released a statement saying that Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, and Kash Patel, Trump’s handpicked chief of staff to his acting defense secretary in the final weeks, were “so far, engaging with the select committee.” The statement said that Trump’s onetime chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was not complying with the subpoena demands. The documents shed light on events within the White House on or about Jan. 6 and bear on the select committee’s need to understand the facts underlying the most serious attack on the operations of the federal government since the Civil War.” Violent insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump climb the west wall of the the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.