The National Archives is preparing to turn over some of former Vice President Mike Pence’s records to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
David Ferriero, the archivist of the United States, sent a letter to former President Donald Trump on Tuesday saying the documents would be delivered March 3 to lawmakers looking into the deadly insurrection ― unless a court order intervenes. The delivery would be the latest batch in a bevy of Trump administration records to be released despite ongoing attempts by the former president to block them with claims of executive privilege.
“After consultation with the Counsel to the President and the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, and as instructed by President Biden, I have determined to disclose … the Vice Presidential records,” Ferriero said in his letter to Trump.
The move comes after the Biden administration ordered the archives to turn over the records regardless of Trump’s objections. In a Jan. 18 letter, the former president claimed releasing the Pence documents would violate executive privilege, but Dana Remus, the White House counsel, said the documents were “not subject to” such claims.
“Many of the records as to which the former President has made a claim of privilege in this set of documents, however, were communications concerning the former Vice President’s responsibilities as President of the Senate in certifying the vote of presidential electors on January 6, 2021,” Remus wrote in the letter to the National Archives.
Trump has continued to fight the release of documents to the House panel, but he has largely failed in his effort. The U.S. Supreme Court last month turned down a request to prevent the records’ release, and House lawmakers have already been sent upwards of 60,000 pages.
The committee is looking into the actions and conversations inside the White House as Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 Electoral College count that had already determined Joe Biden’s presidential victory over Trump.
Several Pence aides have met with the Jan. 6 committee in recent weeks, including Greg Jacob, a counsel to the former vice president; a former chief of staff, Mark Short; and Keith Kellogg, who served as his national security adviser.
The National Archives also said this week that some documents from the Trump White House had been ripped up and needed to be taped back together before they were given to lawmakers.