President Biden Rejects Trump's Claims Of Executive Privilege Related To White House Visitor Logs

The Biden administration is handing another blow to Donald Trump, after a letter from counsel Dana A. Remus to national archivist David Ferriero revealed that Joe Biden does not share a belief that visitor logs at the White House from Jan. 6, 2021, fall under executive privilege.

In consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice, the administration determined that the “assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interest of the [U.S.], and therefore not justified,” the letter states.

"Preserving the confidentiality of this type of record generally is not necessary to protect the long-term institutional interests of the Executive Branch,” Remus added.

The letter shows Biden is following in the footsteps of former President Barack Obama’s administration, by disclosing visitor logs on a voluntary monthly basis, making the records public, regardless of what former President Trump felt while he was president. He has been vocal in using executive privilege to keep the logs, as well as other documentation, away from the Jan. 6 Select Committee, but he is now being directed to release these records.

President Biden is giving his predecessor 15 days to turn over the documents after the National Archives notifies him of the development.

The Jan. 6 committee requested the logs as it continues investigating what role, if any, the former president and other supporters played in the insurrection that occurred when the then-president's supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential win. The committee has agreed to put certain protections in place so as to protect personal and private identifying information and activities and keep that from being unnecessarily released to the public.

As part of the agreement, members of the committee will treat the visitor log entries as highly sensitive documents, and will not divulge information without prior consultation. They will also remove birth dates and Social Security numbers from the record as well.

The decision to buck Trump’s requests comes as reports and other stories continue to surface about the former president’s handling or mishandling of classified documents during his term. Not only has he reportedly mishandled them in terms of turning them over to the National Archives, but he also reportedly expressed poor judgment with how he took care of them while in the White House.