Trump's plan to stop Biden from disclosing details of what Trump did as the Capitol riot unfolded probably won't work, experts say

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Trump's plan to stop Biden from disclosing details of what Trump did as the Capitol riot unfolded probably won't work, experts say
Former President Donald Trump in the White House on October 10, 2018 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee/Getty Images
  • Trump wants to use executive privilege to stop information from being given to a Capitol-riot probe.
  • The committee requested information from Biden's White House about Trump's behavior during the riot.
  • Legal experts said executive privilege doesn't extend to former presidents.
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Former president Donald Trump is unlikely to succeed in his plan to block the release of information about his behavior during the Capitol riot, legal experts said.

A bipartisan congressional committee is probing the events of January 6, which saw the US Capitol stormed by hundreds of rioters, resulting in the deaths of five people, including a police officer.

The committee has requested information on how Trump and his aides behaved during the January 6 insurrection from the White House itself.

That means President Joe Biden's administration has a role in deciding whether to release it. The Wall Street Journal reported, citing two anonymous sources, that Biden was leaning toward making the information public.

Trump has said that he plans to cite "executive privilege" to try to block different requests for information from the committee, The Journal reported.

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Executive privilege is a legal concept that presidents invoke to justify withholding information on the grounds that it would impair the proper functioning of the government.

In order for Trump to invoke it successfully, a court would have to accept that executive privilege can be asserted by somebody even after they leave office. Two legal scholars said that is unlikely to happen.

Barbara McQuade, a legal analyst for MSNBC, said on Thursday that Trump would probably be able to delay the White House's efforts to release information on the Capitol riot but would not ultimately be able to stop it.

McQuade said: "I think ultimately it will be a decision for the Biden White House, but I think he can do enough to file a lawsuit in the courts and wait for that to get litigated.

"So I think he can try to slow things down, but I think at the end of the day Congress will prevail and get the documents and witnesses they want."

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Rep. Jamie Raskin, a constitutional-law expert and member of the investigative committee probing the events of January 6, told The Washington Post that Trump would be unable to invoke executive privilege because it does not exist for former presidents.

"It's not really relevant because there's no president involved - there's no such thing as a former president's executive privilege," he said.

The committee on Thursday released its first subpoenas in the investigation to several of Trump's closest former aides.

It's also requested records from telecoms and social-media firms, The Wall Street Journal reported.

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