Former President Donald Trump is attempting to prevent investigators from accessing a wide range of daily diaries, call logs, drafts of speeches, and handwritten notes related to the January 6 Capitol riot, the National Archives said in a Saturday court filing.
According to the filing, Trump is seeking to block around 750 relevant pages of documents from being investigated by the January 6 House Committee.
The latest revelation offers the most detailed look into the types of documents Trump is attempting to withhold after he sued to prevent the National Archives from overturning such records for investigation earlier this month.
Among those records includes at least 30 pages of presidential diaries, schedules, appointment information showing who visited the White House, activity logs, and calls to Trump and Vice President Mike Pence related to the January 6 riot—along with more than a dozen pages of speeches, remarks, and handwritten notes surrounding the day's events, the National Archives said Saturday.
Additionally, Trump is seeking to withhold the release of "multiple binders of the former press secretary [Kayleigh McEnany] which is made up almost entirely of talking points and statements related to the 2020 election," the National Archives said.
Other documents include "draft text of a presidential speech for the January 6 Save America March; a handwritten list of potential or scheduled briefings and telephone calls concerning election issues; and a draft executive order concerning election integrity ... a draft proclamation honoring deceased Capitol Police Officers Brian Sicknick and Howard Liebengood, and associated e-mails from the Office of the Executive Clerk, which relate to the Select Committee's interest in the White House's response to the Capitol attack."
The National Archives said the hundreds of pages of documents also include information from key aides such as former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, adviser Stephen Miller,and deputy counsel Patrick Philbin.
The latest filing shows that Trump's effort to withhold records is broader than was previously known, and includes documents identified by the National Archives since August as requested by the January 6 committee.
On October 15, Trump sued to block the release of such documents, claiming that disclosing such information would violate his executive privilege. However, President Joe Biden declined to offer executive privilege on most of the records after determining that doing so is "not in the best interests of the United States," adding that it could "shed light" on events that lead to the deadly January 6 riot.
The National Archives is also rejecting Trump's argument, stating that the January 6 committee's requests are necessary to offer insight into the Capitol insurrection.
"Even assuming the applicability of executive privilege, however, the documents may assist the Select Committee in understanding efforts to communicate with the American public, including those who attacked the Capitol on January 6, on the subjects of alleged voter fraud, election security, and other topics concerning the 2020 election," the National Archives wrote in the Saturday court filing.
"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," the filing added.
Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan is scheduled to hold a hearing on Trump's efforts to block access to the documents on Thursday, according to Politico. Chutkan has previously been a fierce critic of the January 6 riot, calling it an "assault on democracy" after five people died and over a hundred more were injured.
Newsweek contacted Trump for a comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
