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1 1 (August 5, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/goveicg0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Sa Research Service Beyond January 6th: White House Confidentiality and Congressional Investigations August 5, 2022 One significant aspect of the recent hearings held by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (Committee) has been the frequency and prevalence of testimony by White House staffers and executive branch officials about private conversations and interactions they had with each other and sometimes directly with then-President Donald Trump. Presidential advisers have testified to congressional committees before-both voluntarily and under compulsion-but rarely has Congress been given such a clear window into the inner workings of the White House during a time of crisis. Recent history provides a number of high-profile examples of Congress struggling to obtain information from the White House and other executive branch officials regarding presidential decisions and actions. The Committee's recent successes are likely due to a combination of political, legal, and practical factors. One salient factor contributing to the Committee's robust and timely access to relevant evidence appears to have been a series of decisions by the Biden Administration, all of which have prioritized transparency and accountability over the confidentiality of executive branch communications. These include the decision not to invoke-or support former President Trump's invocation of- executive privilege over White House communications and documents relevant to the Committee's investigation; the decision to indict and prosecute Stephen Bannon and Peter Navarro for criminal contempt of Congress based on their failure to comply with Committee subpoenas; and the decision to reject asserted claims of absolute testimonial immunity for former advisers to former Presidents in favor of a form of qualified immunity. Each of these decisions has contributed, or likely will contribute, to the Committee's ability to obtain information necessary to carry out its mandate, either by removing obstacles for those willing to cooperate with the Committee's investigation or by weakening defenses for those unwilling to cooperate. With the Committee's investigation possibly-though not necessarily-approaching a conclusion, it is not entirely clear how these developments in the law and practice of executive privilege, contempt of Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB10802 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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