The Daily Fuckup

On Dec. 22, 2021, Donald Trump sent another letter asserting executive privilege over White House records sought by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. The National Archives posted that letter alongside the White House and archivist correspondence that followed, making clear the records fight was still in motion and had not yet reached a handoff. ([archives.gov](https://www.archives.gov/foia/january-6-committee))

The document dispute sat inside a larger constitutional fight over presidential records, congressional oversight and how much of Trump’s White House paper trail could be shielded from investigators. The House committee had requested records from the National Archives under the Presidential Records Act, and the Archives’ public page shows a sequence of letters beginning in August 2021 and continuing through December as Trump and the Biden White House took opposite positions on access. ([archives.gov](https://www.archives.gov/foia/january-6-committee))

By Dec. 22, the central question was not whether the records had been released. It was whether Trump’s renewed privilege claim could keep them from the committee longer, and whether the archivist would accept the former president’s position. That question remained unresolved on that date. The Archives page shows White House counsel Dana Remus responding on Dec. 23, and Archivist David Ferriero answering on Dec. 27. ([archives.gov](https://www.archives.gov/foia/january-6-committee))

The broader Jan. 6 investigation was already moving on other tracks at the same time. A House report on the contempt case against former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows was filed on Dec. 13, underscoring how aggressively the committee was pursuing testimony and records tied to the run-up to the attack. But the Trump records matter itself was still in the privilege-and-access phase on Dec. 22, not the release phase. ([docs.house.gov](https://docs.house.gov/meetings/IJ/IJ00/20211213/114313/HRPT-117-NA.pdf))

What Dec. 22 did show was that Trump was still trying to use executive privilege as a brake on the inquiry, while the Archives kept the correspondence in the open and the White House continued to contest his claim. The actual release steps came later. ([archives.gov](https://www.archives.gov/foia/january-6-committee))