Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 9, 2021, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A17 A 17NEWS I WORLDSATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2021 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM Y O U A R E I N V I T E D F O R A P R I V A T E T O U R W ASHINGTON — The White House said Friday U.S. Presi-dent Joe Biden will not block the handover of documents sought by a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, setting up a showdown with former president Donald Trump, who wants to shield those White House records from investigators. The letter from White House coun- sel Dana Remus to the Archivist of the United States comes at the start of a potentially lengthy legal battle over the investigation. Trump, who told his sup- porters to “fight like hell” the morning of the insurrection and has defended the rioters who beat police and broke into the Capitol, is trying to block Con- gress from learning more. Biden has so far sided with House Democrats, who have asked for thousands of pages of documents and subpoenaed witnesses connected to Trump. The House committee investigating the insurrection, which formed over the summer, now has the momentous task of sorting through the details and ob- taining documents and testimony from witnesses who may or may not be co- operative. And the jockeying between the two administrations, Congress and the witnesses is certain to delay the in- vestigation and set the stage for messy litigation that could stretch well into 2022. In a separate development Friday, a lawyer for Steve Bannon said the for- mer White House aide won’t comply with the House committee’s investiga- tion because Trump is asserting execu- tive privilege. Bannon is the only one of the top Trump aides subpoenaed on Sept. 23 who was not working for the Trump ad- ministration on Jan. 6. Two other aides, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and for- mer Pentagon aide Kash Patel, are “engaging” with the committee, law- makers said in a statement. Remus wrote that Biden has deter- mined that invoking executive privil- ege “is not in the best interests of the United States.” The House panel had asked for the records, including com- munication within the White House under Trump and information about planning and funding for rallies held in Washington. Among those events was a rally near the White House the morning of Jan. 6 featuring remarks by Trump, who egged on a crowd of thousands pro- testing Biden’s win. Remus wrote that the documents “shed light on events within the White House on and about January 6 and bear on the select committee’s need to understand the facts underlying the most serious attack on the operations of the federal government since the Civil War.” The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter Friday. Trump responded with his own letter to the National Archives formally as- serting privilege over nearly 50 docu- ments. Referring to the Presidential Records Act, Trump wrote, “I hereby make a protective assertion of constitutionally based privilege with respect to all addi- tional records.” He said if the commit- tee seeks other information he consid- ers privileged information, “I will take all necessary and appropriate steps to defend the office of the presidency.” The investigation sets up a unique clash, pitting the current administra- tion against its predecessor. Since Biden now holds the office of the presi- dency, he will make the call on some of Trump’s privilege claims. And while Biden has accommodated the first re- quests from Congress, the White House has said it will review new claims on a “case by case basis.” The final word may not rest with Biden, but the courts, if Trump decides to litigate — which is expected — or if the House votes to hold any of the witnesses in contempt of Congress. In the case of a House contempt vote, the Justice Department would then decide whether to prosecute. If Trump were to win a case to block the documents, that would mark a dramatic expansion of the unwritten executive power. But he is expected to have an uphill battle, as courts have traditionally left questions of execu- tive privilege up to the current White House occupant. The leaders of the Jan. 6 panel, Demo- cratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Missis- sippi and Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, said in a statement Friday that “we will not allow any witness to defy a lawful subpoena or attempt to run out the clock, and we will swiftly consider advancing a criminal con- tempt of Congress referral.” The committee’s subpoenas had set a Thursday deadline for Bannon, Mead- ows, Patel and a fourth witness, former White House communications aide Dan Scavino, to provide documents. They also set dates for interviews next week. Kash said in a statement that “I can confirm that I have responded to the subpoena in a timely manner” but would not elaborate. A spokesman for the committee declined to comment on whether Scavino was co-operating. In a Sept. 23 letter to Bannon, the committee said he had been in contact with Trump in the weeks ahead of the attack, urging him to focus his efforts in overturning the election on Jan. 6, when Congress certifies electoral votes. The letter noted that Bannon had been quoted on Jan. 5 as saying “all hell is going to break loose tomorrow.” Bannon’s lawyer, Robert Costello, said in an Oct. 7 letter to the panel that until the issues over privilege are re- solved, “we are unable to respond to your requests for documents and testi- mony.” Costello wrote that Bannon is pre- pared to “comply with the directions of the courts” when and if they rule. Costello’s letter includes excerpts from a separate letter to Bannon by Justin Clark, a lawyer for Trump. Clark says documents and testimony provid- ed to the Jan. 6 panel could include in- formation that is “potentially protected from disclosure by executive and other privileges, including among others the presidential communications, delibera- tive process and attorney client privil- eges.” The committee has subpoenaed 13 other individuals connected to the plan- ning of Jan. 6 and set deadlines for documents and interviews later this month. — The Associated Press WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday issued the first presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, lending the most sig- nificant boost yet to efforts to refocus the federal holiday that celebrates Christopher Columbus to- ward an appreciation of Indigenous peoples. The day will be observed Oct. 11, along with Columbus Day, which is established by Congress. While Native Americans have campaigned for years for local and national days in recognition of the country’s indigenous peoples, Biden’s an- nouncement appeared to catch many by surprise. “This was completely unexpected. Even though we’ve been talking about it and wanting it for so long,” said Hillary Kempenich, an artist and member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chip- pewa. In 2019, she and other tribal members successfully campaigned for her town of Grand Forks, N.D., to replace Columbus Day with a day recognizing Indigenous peoples. “I’m kind of overwhelmed with joy,” said Kem- penich. She was waiting Friday afternoon for her Grade 8 daughter, who grew up challenging teachers’ depictions of Columbus, to come home from school so Kempenich could share the news. “For generations, federal policies systematic- ally sought to assimilate and displace Native people and eradicate Native cultures,” Biden wrote in the Indigenous Peoples’ Day proclama- tion. “Today, we recognize Indigenous peoples’ resilience and strength as well as the immeasur- able positive impact that they have made on every aspect of American society.” In a separate proclamation on Columbus Day, Biden praised the role of Italian Americans in U.S. society, but also referenced the violence and harm Columbus and other explorers of the age brought about on the Americas. Making landfall in what is now the Bahamas on Oct. 12, 1492, Columbus, an Italian, was the first of a wave of European explorers who decimated Indigenous populations in the Americas in quests for gold and other wealth, including people to en- slave. “Today, we also acknowledge the painful hist- ory of wrongs and atrocities that many European explorers inflicted on Tribal Nations and Indigen- ous communities,” Biden wrote. “It is a measure of our greatness as a nation that we do not seek to bury these shameful episodes of our past — that we face them honestly, we bring them to the light, and we do all we can to address them.” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden “felt strongly” about recognizing Indigen- ous Peoples Day. Asked if Biden might seek to end marking Columbus Day as a federal holiday, she replied, “I don’t have any predictions at this point.” John Echohawk, executive director of the Na- tive American Rights Fund, said the president’s decision to recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day was an important step. “Big changes happen from each small step, and we hope this administration intends to continue making positive steps towards shaping a brighter future for all citizens,” Echohawak said. Biden’s acknowledgment of the suffering of Na- tive Americans also marked a break from Presi- dent Donald Trump’s ardent defense of “intrepid heroes” like Columbus in his 2020 proclamation of the holiday. “Sadly, in recent years, radical activists have sought to undermine Christopher Columbus’ leg- acy,” Trump said at the time. “These extremists seek to replace discussion of his vast contribu- tions with talk of failings, his discoveries with atrocities, and his achievements with transgres- sions.” Biden made the announcement on the same day the White House disclosed its plan to restore territory to two sprawling national monuments in Utah that Trump had stripped of protections. One, Bears Ears, is on land that Native American tribes consider sacred. Biden’s campaign against Trump saw tribal ac- tivists mobilize to get out votes for the Democrat, in activism that tribal members credited with helping Biden win some western states. — The Associated Press No executive privilege on Jan. 6 docs: Biden ERIC TUCKER, MARY CLARE JALONICK, ZEKE MILLER AND JILL COLVIN First presidential proclamation for Indigenous Peoples’ Day NEW YORK — Former U.S. president Donald Trump’s company lost more than US$70 million on his Washington, D.C., hotel during his four years in office despite taking in millions from foreign governments, according to documents released Friday by a congressional committee in- vestigating his business. The House Committee on Oversight and Re- form said the luxury hotel just a few blocks from the White House was struggling so badly that the Trump Organization had to inject US$27 million from other parts of its business and got preferen- tial treatment from a major lender to delay pay- ments on a $170-million loan. The committee said the losses came despite an estimated $3.7 million in revenue from foreign governments, business that ethics experts say Trump should have refused because it posed con- flicts of interest with his role as president. The Trump Organization said in a statement that the findings of the Democrat-led committee were misleading and false, and it did not receive any special treatment from a lender. The documents from the committee, the first public disclosure of audited financial statements from the hotel, show steep losses despite a brisk business from lobbyists, businesses and Repub- lican groups while Trump was in office. — The Associated Press Trump hotel lost $70M during years in office President won’t block handover to committee YURI GRIPAS/ABACA PRESS/TNS U.S. President Joe Biden has sided with House Democrats, who have asked for thousands of pages of documents and subpoenaed witnesses connected to former president Donald Trump for an investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. A_17_Oct-09-21_FP_01.indd A17 10/8/21 10:59 PM ;