August 23, 2022 5:04pm EDT
Biden signed off on FBI review of Trump records, National Archives letter reveals
Under federal law, the Justice Department cannot make decisions about executive privilege; the sitting president decides.
By Bill Mears , David Spunt , Brooke Singman | Fox News
The Biden White House, at the request of the Justice Department, signed off to have the FBI and the intelligence community examine hundreds of pages of classified documents former President Trump turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), a newly-surfaced government letter reveals.
Debra Wall, NARA's acting head, penned a letter to Trump attorney Evan Corcoran May 10 revealing federal officials had been negotiating for months with the Trump team over whether federal law enforcement and intelligence officials should be allowed to conduct a national security review or whether the material should be shielded under Trump’s purported assertion of executive privilege.
The letter, posted Tuesday on the NARA website, indicates the Biden administration did not believe a former president could assert executive privilege over material that, by law, had to be turned over to NARA.
"NARA identified items marked as classified national security information, up to the level of Top Secret and including Sensitive Compartmented Information and Special Access Program materials," Wall wrote in the letter.
"NARA informed the Department of Justice about that discovery, which prompted the Department to ask the President to request that NARA provide the FBI with access to the boxes at issue so that the FBI and others in the Intelligence Community could examine them."
Wall indicated the archive’s initial review of 15 boxes handed over by Trump in January 2022 included more than 100 classified documents totaling more than 700 pages and included some documents labeled "Sensitive Compartmented Information" and some labeled "Special Access Program," which only a limited number of people are authorized to view in a secure facility.
Wall said she then sought guidance from the White House and Justice Department on how to proceed.
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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-signed-off-fbi-review-trump-records-national-archives-letter-reveals
