this will be an ongoing process, and this is just the first set of documents. we ll evaluate questions of privilege on a case-by-case basis. this comes as the 1/6 committee is considering its next moves now that yesterday s deadline has passed. benny thompson, liz cheney released a statement today, threatening steve bannon with criminal contempt. noting that other witnesses are cooperating, but they say mr. bannon has indicated he will try to hide behind vague references of privilege to the former president. we will swiftly consider advancing a criminal contempt of congress for referral. bannon s attorney said he would
slow walk the process. after all, that s really worked for him. and it worked for him in impeachment, by stalling and not getting witnesses. it s worked for him with his taxes. and that s what bannon is counting on, that it will work for him, with the subpoena process. no, he s not going to win the argument. but yes, he s going to try to make it to slow the process down. eugene, was it regarded as pro forma or a big deal that biden decided the way he did on this tranche of documents? i think it was unsurprising. we expect as things move on that the biden administration is not likely to exert executive privilege for the former president and for his aides. but what they continue to say is, this is by a case-by-case basis. part of that is to make sure that when it s time for the biden administration to exert
election is stolen without saying the election is stolen. and that will be our political reality for the next two or three years. cynthia, once and for all, is there any scenario under which a former president in a non-national security area can declare privilege over documents once they ve left office? sure. he can declare it. but that doesn t mean it s enforceable. what is happening now is that biden has said, i m going to release the documents. under the law, trump has 30 days to complain. if he doesn t do anything, the documents will be released. what is likely to happen is, on about day 29 1/2, he s going to file a lawsuit and gum up the process. because trump s whole game, it doesn t matter if he s legally correct. it only matters to him that he can slow the process down and
obama when the house comes back someday, and they re asking democrats to force the issue, to arrest folks. and that s really not something we should have to do in the interest of going through the discovery process of democracy. i was kind of offended by the gentleman from the lincoln project s tweet. i like rick wilson a lot. i respect his opinion. but i saw it as an affront to the leadership of my friend, benny thompson. i m not totally detached from that, but when people of the congressional black caucus are made to look ineffective, there s a disingenuous position on the other side that the steve bannons of the world will not respect subpoenas. that has nothing to do with the leadership of benny thomas.