Reconciliation bill ‘almost there’ after Manchin’s demands to scale it back –

At least five former Trump administration staffers are speaking to the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection, according to a new report.

CNN reports:

According to five former Trump aides, counsel for the committee has emailed or texted them directly to ask whether they are interested in coming in to talk to the congressional investigators, often looking for context on what happened inside the West Wing before the insurrection on January 6.

While several people have voluntarily sat down with the committee, others have declined the committee’s request or not responded at all. The outreach has ranged from junior-level staffers to more seasoned officials.

The outreach is not necessarily because the committee believes the staffers were involved in what happened that day. But the investigative staff appears to be trying to glean more context on what was happening inside the West Wing before, during and after the attack, according to the sources.

The report comes as Donald Trump and at least one of his former advisers, Steve Bannon, have pushed back against the select committee’s subpoenas.

The House voted to hold Bannon in criminal contempt last week for defying a subpoena, and the justice department is now considering whether to prosecute him over the matter.

Joe Biden has blocked another effort by Donald Trump to shield White House documents from subpoenas issued by the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection.

According to Reuters, White House counsel Dana Remus said in a letter yesterday to the National Archives, “Biden has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States, and therefore is not justified.”

Trump has attempted to block the committee from receiving subpoenaed documents by claiming executive privilege. However, as a former occupant of the White House, Trump needs Biden’s cooperation to exert executive privilege, and the current president has refused to offer assistance in the matter.

Trump also filed a lawsuit last week in another effort to block the select committee from gaining access to the subpoenaed documents: