Editor’s Note (May 2, 2022, 10:56 a.m. ET): NBC News has determined that two passages in an earlier version of this article — one about the agreement to shield President Trump’s records and another about the authorization given to the National Archives — were not properly attributed to their original source and did not meet our standards for original material. The passages have been removed from the article.WASHINGTON — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot has reached an agreement with the White House to defer its request for hundreds of records from the Trump administration.
President Joe Biden had opted not to invoke executive privilege on behalf of former President Donald Trump for many documents the committee sought, but the latest agreement shows there were some that he was not willing to turn over.
The agreements "reflect the ongoing effort by the Executive and Legislative Branches to ensure that the Select Committee's legitimate needs are accommodated while preserving important Executive Branch prerogatives, such as the need for confidentiality in presidential decision-making," White House deputy counsel Jonathan Su wrote in a letter to the committee dated Dec. 16.
“The documents for which the Select Committee has agreed to withdraw or defer its request do not appear to bear on the White House’s preparations for or response to the events of January 6, or on efforts to overturn the election or otherwise obstruct the peaceful transfer of power,” Su said.
Su wrote that for the committee, withholding the documents “should not compromise its ability to complete its critical investigation expeditiously.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the House committee said it "welcomes President Biden’s decision to clear the way for the production of another set of records" and "has agreed to defer action on certain records as part of the accommodations process."
"The Select Committee has not withdrawn its request for these records and will continue to engage with the executive branch to ensure the committee gets access to all the information relevant to our probe,” the statement said.
Trump responded on Wednesday by characterizing the deferral as a win for him, while reiterating his criticism of the House panel and the focus of its probe.
The committee requested documents in March and August from the National Archives that it said were related to the Trump administration's actions before, during and after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, when a group of Trump's supporters attacked the building, trying to block his electoral defeat. Trump notified the National Archives that he asserted executive privilege.
Biden, however, concluded that the privilege should not apply.
Last week, Trump asked the Supreme Court to block the National Archives from turning over records from his time in the White House to the committee.
The lower courts moved quickly earlier this month to hear Trump's lawsuit, but his lawyers told the Supreme Court there's no rush given that the next congressional meeting to count electoral votes is more than three years away.
