Biden Rejects Bid by Trump to Withhold January 6 Documents

US President Joe Biden on Friday rejected a bid by Donald Trump to withhold documents from a congressional committee investigating the January 6 assault on the US Capitol by supporters of the former president.

The House Select Committee warned four former members of the Trump administration meanwhile they could be subject to charges of criminal contempt of Congress if they decline to answer subpoenas from the panel.

Trump is seeking to assert executive privilege to prevent documents relating to January 6 from being handed over to the select committee by the National Archives.

Executive privilege allows a president to keep certain communications confidential. Legal experts are divided on whether it applies to a former president, and Biden declined to assert it on behalf of Trump.

Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the White House is "cooperating with ongoing investigations" and "has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not warranted for the first set of documents."

Biden will "evaluate cases of privilege on a case by case basis" but he believes it is of the "utmost importance for both Congress and the American people to have a complete understanding of the events of that day to prevent them from happening again," Psaki said.

The committee investigating the Capitol attack issued a request in August for records related to the attempt by Trump supporters to block the certification by Congress of Biden's November election victory.

Among the records and documents being sought are communications from Trump, members of his family, his top aides, his lawyers and dozens of other former members of his administration.

In a statement on Friday, Trump accused Democrats of using Congress to "persecute their political opponents" and released a letter to the head of the National Archives reiterating his claims of executive privilege.

"This is about using the power of the government to silence 'Trump' and our Make America Great Again movement, the greatest such achievement of all time," he said. "We won two elections, did far better in the second than the first, and now perhaps have to do it a third time!"