National Archives tells Trump it plans to hand Mike Pence’s records over to Capitol riots committee

The Archives will hand over the documents to the committee on 3 March

The National Archives has informed Donald Trump that it will hand over former vice president Mike Pence’s records to the House select committee probing last year’s 6 January Capitol Hill riots.

In a letter to the former president on Tuesday, US archivist David S Ferrioro said the decision was taken after consulting with the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel and the White House counsel and “as instructed by President [Joe] Biden”.

“I have determined to disclose to the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (“Select Committee”) the Vice Presidential records from out December 8, 2021, Notification that you identified as privileged in your letter of January 18, 2022,” the letter read.

The National Archives will hand over the documents to the committee on 3 March.

“Production to the Select Committee of the records from the December 8, 2021 notification as to which privilege was not formally asserted in your 18 January 2022, letter is ongoing and will continue until complete,” the letter added.

On Tuesday, the former president issued a statement hitting out at the committee for not investigating why Mr Pence did not agree to his demand to interfere in the counting of Electoral College ballots and join his attempts to overthrow the 2020 election.

“So pathetic to watch the Unselect Committee of political hacks, liars, and traitors work so feverishly to alter the Electoral College Act so that a Vice President cannot ensure the honest results of the election,” he wrote.

“[T]he Unselect Committee should be investigating why Nancy Pelosi did such a poor job of overseeing security and why Mike Pence did not send back the votes for recertification or approval, in that it has now been shown that he clearly had the right to do so!” he added.

Mr Pence, who had become a target of the pro-Trump mob during the attack, said last week that he had done “[his] duty under the Constitution of the United States” by defying Mr Trump’s wishes and allowing the votes to be counted.

Several of Mr Pence’s former aides, including former chief of staff Marc Short and counsel Greg Jacob, have appeared before the committee recently.

The committee has so far received 60,000 pages of records, including 700 pages of National Archives documents that Mr Trump had tried to keep away from investigators, a congressional aide said to ABC News.

The Archives started handing over documents from the Trump administration last month to the committee after the Supreme Court ruled against Mr Trump’s bid to block the release of the records citing executive privilege.

Earlier in October, Mr Trump’s request to assert executive privilege was quashed by Mr Biden, allowing them to be released.

Mr Trump also lost a challenge in a federal appeals court that also refused to block the documents.