University of Chicago Law Professor Aziz Huq writes in Politico about Trump’s bullshit lawsuit to block the National Archives from releasing White House records relevant to his failed attempt to overturn the election to the Capitol riot committee being an obvious attempt to simply stall until the Republicans can take the House back and kill the inquiry, suggesting how Biden circumvent it: “The Justice Department can seek expedited resolution of the constitutional question by seeking declaratory relief against the former president in the D.C. District Court, and then request ‘cert before judgment’ to get high court review quickly on the bounds of Article II authority.”

“A second option for Biden would be to leverage the president’s broad authority under Article II of the Constitution to decide whether and how to release classified material – i.e., not just whether to hand over a record, but over whether and how to keep specific facts confidential. As one GOP senator noted, an incumbent president has the power to ‘declassify anything at any time.’ Here, moreover, Article II authority is at a zenith because disclosure also serves Congress’ Article I interest in effective oversight. Using his constitutional power to declassify at will, Biden could order his aides to review the materials, and then disclose relevant portions to the committee staff.”

“A precedent for such broad use of the president’s declassification power comes from the Trump years. Famously, as president, Trump employed this power cavalierly to disclose classified information to Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador. Trump also pushed law enforcement and intelligence agencies to declassify details about the Russia investigation. Having so recklessly used that power, he’s hardly in a position to complain about it now. Both these approaches deal with the profound problem faced by the select committee – not Trump’s constitutional claim to executive privilege, but the strategic use of litigation to deflate the rule of law. And both have the virtue of fitting comfortably within our constitutional traditions in the process.”