A coalition of House committees is asking the White House and 16 other agencies to turn over a trove of documents from the Trump administration related to the electoral vote count and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The request, spearheaded by the House Oversight Committee, asks White House chief of staff Ron Klain to share documents “relating to the counting of the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6 or the potential for demonstrations, violence or attacks in the National Capital Region.”
The request includes the Office of the Vice President, and seeks all communications between Dec. 1 and Inauguration Day, specifically asking to relay “communications, if any, with participants in the events of Jan. 6” or their associates.
Amid a flurry of requests for information following the Jan. 6 riots from a number of agencies, various Congressional committees have largely excluded the White House from efforts to examine the breakdown in security planning and communication.
The documents could provide an insight into how a number of Trump administration officials prepared for and responded to the attacks.
The White House did not respond to request for comment on Thursday, but press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that the decision on releasing the documents would likely fall to the National Archives, which preserves government documents, including those of the president. The agency was also included in the committees’ request.
“A lot of those documents would be in the National Archives, I believe, so I’m not sure it would be White House documents,” Psaki said on Friday.
The request, joined also by the Intelligence, Homeland Security, Judiciary, Armed Services and House Administration committees, was sent to a number of other agencies, as well.
The 16 agencies asked to turn over similar documents include the Department of Justice, the FBI, the National Guard, the Pentagon, U.S. Capitol Police, the sergeants at arms for both chambers, and D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department.
The sweeping request from the House follows a similar effort by numerous Senate committees seeking information from 22 different law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies.
Senators on Thursday also committed to releasing a report of their investigation into Jan. 6 in the coming months.
“Our two productive bipartisan oversight hearings helped provide many answers and accountability for the failures around this attack. Moving forward, we continue to investigate, collect, and review materials, as well as speak with current and former officials to conduct a thorough examination of the preparation and response failures surrounding January 6th,” the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Rules committees said in a statement.
Updated on Friday at 4:56 p.m.